The 77% number is specifically from the "official gender pay gap", presumably published by your national ministry of statistics or whatever (I am not from the U

The 77% number is specifically from the "official gender pay gap", presumably published by your national ministry of statistics or whatever (I am not from the US, but here in Germany the official ministry for statistics does the same). And that explicitly does not show 77 Cent to the dollar, as it does not compare people in the same jobs. Anecdotes are also really misleading here: not everybody earns the same amount of money, so you can always find two people where one of the two earns more than the other. It doesn't mean anything. And as a male engineer I have also discovered before that somebody who seemed less qualified earned more than me. Renegotiate, or switch companies. As for the Google spreadsheet, it is interesting, but I doubt it captures sufficient detail. In fact, a often used trick with the gender pay gap (among other things) is to remove just enough detail to make it seem outrageous. For example lets say pediatricians earn less on average than neurosurgeons, but more women become pediatricians then neurosurgeons (why is another matter). Now if you want to give the impression of sexist salaries, you don't publish the average income of male and female pediatricians and male and female neurosurgeons. You go one step back and publish the average salaries of male and female physicians. Just omit the details that could explain the differences in salaries, and you have shown your desired sexist wage gap. (why pediatricians earn less than neurosurgeons: simple supply and demand).