For male workers, the short-term news about wages is good but the long-term news isn’t. For female workers, it’s the other way around. As for the gender pay gap — well, it’s complicated.

Men experienced a significant real wage increase last quarter, up 1.7% from the previous quarter. For women, wages fell slightly, by 0.2%. The result is a further widening of the gender pay gap, which had been narrowing but has been stubbornly persistent in recent years. In the medium term, however, women are doing slightly better than men — their real wages are up 3.6% from last year, compared to 3.5% for men. And over the long term, the labor market is in their favor.

That doesn’t mean the gender pay gap will go away, however. In fact, it may even grow.

On balance, the post-pandemic economy was good f

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