Andrea Hsu Women working full-time, year round, earn an average of 81 cents for every dollar men working full-time, year round make. simplehappyart/Getty Images hide caption Equal Pay Day has come around again. The annual observance marks how far into the new year women must work to make what men earned in the previous year. This year, it's March 26, a day later than it was in 2025. That's because for the second year in a row, the gender pay gap in the U.S. has widened. According to the most recent data from the Census Bureau, women working full-time, year-round, now earn 81 cents for every dollar men earn. That's down from 83 cents a year ago, and 84 cents the year prior. It's the first consecutive widening of the wage gap since the 1960s, says Deborah Vagins, director of the Equal Pay Today, a national coalition that organizes not just one, but nine annual observances, marking equal pay days for different groups of women. This year, Black Women's Equal Pay Day will be marked on July 21.…