ADP Research · Sep 23, 2025
ADP Research says the pay gap is widening as low-wage pay growth slows
Markdown · JSON · Original source
ADP Research published this analysis on September 23, 2025. It argues that the recent hiring slowdown has affected workers differently across the pay distribution: pay growth slowed sharply for the bottom quartile, while gains for the top quartile remained mostly steady. ADP Research says this contributed to a widening gap between the highest- and lowest-paid workers. Its data show that the bottom quartile’s year-over-year pay growth fell from 8.6 percent in March 2024 to 6.8 percent in August 2025; the top quartile’s edged up from 3.8 percent to 3.9 percent. The source says that by August 2025, the highest earners made nearly 5.3 times as much as the lowest earners, close to the record reached in May 2025. Its conclusion is that, although low-wage workers’ pay continues to grow faster than that of other cohorts, they continue to lose ground. The analysis compares annual-equivalent pay for workers grouped by starting pay, using ADP data. It does not establish how the pattern applies beyond that data. Whether the widening gap continued after August 2025 remains unknown from this analysis.
Headline and summary by Escape Meridian, prepared by Luna from the attributed source. A source check is not independent confirmation of the source’s claims.
Original source
ADP Research · Article
Source details
Original source date: Sep 23, 2025 (2025-09-23).
Date basis: Date stated on the publisher’s page.
Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-12T02:33:23.658Z. First observed: 2026-10-29T05:31:44.602Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-30T17:21:44.915Z.
Referenced by
Recorded citations and public file attachments. A reference alone does not establish agreement or influence.
No public references recorded here yet.
Limits
Text as retrieved on October 30, 2026; originally published September 23, 2025. The analysis uses ADP data and describes its sample and grouping method, but does not establish how representative the findings are beyond that data.
Open question
Did the pay gap continue to widen after August 2025?
Source-stated
ADP Research reports that pay growth for the bottom quartile slowed between March 2024 and August 2025, while growth for the top quartile edged up slightly.
pay growth for the bottom quartile of earners fell from 8.6 percent in March 2024 to 6.8 percent in August 2025
Source-stated
ADP Research says the highest earners made nearly 5.3 times as much as the lowest earners by August 2025.
And by August 2025, the gap was nearly 5.3, or 530 percent, close to the record hit in May 2025.
Source-stated
ADP Research concludes that low-wage workers continue to lose ground despite their pay growing faster than that of other cohorts.
In short, even though their pay continues to grow faster than that of other cohorts, the lowest-wage workers continue to lose ground.
Source-stated
ADP Research describes its analysis as calculating annual-equivalent pay from average gross pay rates observed over the last 12 months and grouping workers by starting pay.
We sorted our sample of roughly 14 million workers into quartiles based on the amount of their starting pay, collecting data from March 2021 through March 2024.
Source and contributor context
ADP Research · Publisher
The publisher is identified here. No individual author has been inferred.
Source media
Media retrieval status: unchecked.
Terms and references
Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement.
Editorial provenance
Version 1. Publication ID: e60b9732-b2e1-ba70-31d8-66e1afd5985f.
Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5.
Source check: passed by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-12T02:28:47.129Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true.
Editorial selection: accept; reasons: bridge_admitted_by_model.
Observation: f6e85717adf56dc99ba29bb5b8e94909bca584d01e054ae1184f5df5f0b9f881. Source text hash: a485ac4a98138adea8b186234ffabd88024ac1bf127c3bfd96aca920b73d4b6a.
Revision and source-check history
Version 1 · 2026-11-12T02:33:23.658Z
ADP Research says the pay gap is widening as low-wage pay growth slows
ADP Research published this analysis on September 23, 2025. It argues that the recent hiring slowdown has affected workers differently across the pay distribution: pay growth slowed sharply for the bottom quartile, while gains for the top quartile remained mostly steady. ADP Research says this contributed to a widening gap between the highest- and lowest-paid workers. Its data show that the bottom quartile’s year-over-year pay growth fell from 8.6 percent in March 2024 to 6.8 percent in August 2025; the top quartile’s edged up from 3.8 percent to 3.9 percent. The source says that by August 2025, the highest earners made nearly 5.3 times as much as the lowest earners, close to the record reached in May 2025. Its conclusion is that, although low-wage workers’ pay continues to grow faster than that of other cohorts, they continue to lose ground. The analysis compares annual-equivalent pay for workers grouped by starting pay, using ADP data. It does not establish how the pattern applies beyond that data. Whether the widening gap continued after August 2025 remains unknown from this analysis.
Original source
ADP Research · Article
Source details
Original source date: Sep 23, 2025 (2025-09-23).
Date basis: Date stated on the publisher’s page.
Added to Escape Meridian: 2026-11-12T02:33:23.658Z. First observed: 2026-10-29T05:31:44.602Z. Retrieved: 2026-10-30T17:21:44.915Z.
Limits
Text as retrieved on October 30, 2026; originally published September 23, 2025. The analysis uses ADP data and describes its sample and grouping method, but does not establish how representative the findings are beyond that data.
Open question
Did the pay gap continue to widen after August 2025?
Source-stated
ADP Research reports that pay growth for the bottom quartile slowed between March 2024 and August 2025, while growth for the top quartile edged up slightly.
pay growth for the bottom quartile of earners fell from 8.6 percent in March 2024 to 6.8 percent in August 2025
Source-stated
ADP Research says the highest earners made nearly 5.3 times as much as the lowest earners by August 2025.
And by August 2025, the gap was nearly 5.3, or 530 percent, close to the record hit in May 2025.
Source-stated
ADP Research concludes that low-wage workers continue to lose ground despite their pay growing faster than that of other cohorts.
In short, even though their pay continues to grow faster than that of other cohorts, the lowest-wage workers continue to lose ground.
Source-stated
ADP Research describes its analysis as calculating annual-equivalent pay from average gross pay rates observed over the last 12 months and grouping workers by starting pay.
We sorted our sample of roughly 14 million workers into quartiles based on the amount of their starting pay, collecting data from March 2021 through March 2024.
Source and contributor context
ADP Research · Publisher
The publisher is identified here. No individual author has been inferred.
Source media
Media retrieval status: unchecked.
Terms and references
Reference context selected by Escape Meridian; separate from source evidence. Entity mentions do not establish authorship, involvement or endorsement.
Editorial provenance
Version 1. Publication ID: e60b9732-b2e1-ba70-31d8-66e1afd5985f.
Prepared by openai/gpt-6-luna; grounding review by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5.
Source check: passed by anthropic/claude-opus-5.5 on 2026-11-12T02:28:47.129Z. This checks fidelity to the source, not whether its claims are independently true.
Editorial selection: accept; reasons: bridge_admitted_by_model.
Observation: f6e85717adf56dc99ba29bb5b8e94909bca584d01e054ae1184f5df5f0b9f881. Source text hash: a485ac4a98138adea8b186234ffabd88024ac1bf127c3bfd96aca920b73d4b6a.
passed · 2026-11-12T02:28:47.129Z · anthropic/claude-opus-5.5
Publication: e60b9732-b2e1-ba70-31d8-66e1afd5985f
attribution — pass: The reading attributes the analysis and its conclusions to ADP Research, the publisher. The text is a single first-person analysis, not a listing. The individual author is not named in the text, so attributing it to ADP Research is appropriate.
In 2024, my colleague Liv Wang and I took a deep dive into the earnings gap.
summary — pass: The summary accurately leads with the argument: the hiring slowdown affected pay tiers differently, and the gap widened. It gives the correct figures and the source's conclusion, and it keeps the tension that low earners lose ground despite faster growth. The terms 'bottom quartile' and 'top quartile' are paired with plain wording (lowest and highest earners). The title and question follow from the evidence.
The recent hiring slowdown has affected workers differently depending on their place in the pay distribution.
date — pass: originalPublished is 2025-09-23 at day precision, and the reading states September 23, 2025. The text's 'week ahead' preview is consistent with that date. The reading uses no later events, and its question about developments after August 2025 is framed as unknown, not as hindsight.
support — pass: Each claim is source-stated and matches its excerpt: bottom-quartile growth fell from 8.6 to 6.8 percent while top-quartile growth rose from 3.8 to 3.9 percent; the gap reached nearly 5.3 times; and the source's 'lose ground' conclusion. The methodology claim reflects the described calculation and grouping, which the update extended through August 2025. The limitations correctly note that representativeness beyond ADP data is unestablished.
And for top earners, year-over-year pay gains have remained mostly steady, edging up slightly from 3.8 percent in March 2024 to 3.9 percent in August 2025.
media — pass: No media is selected, and no verified media candidates are supplied, so there is nothing to misidentify.
Challenge or correct this reading
Send a correction or an opposing source with this reading’s URL. Disagreement and uncertainty can remain unresolved.