Hey, y’all. It’s a somber moment here in New York City as people gather to remember loved ones killed in the 9/11 attacks. Personally, I don’t have any “I remember where I was when” moment; I was too young. I reflect on what “Never Forget” means when you’re  too young to know what exactly a pre-9/11 world looked like down below.

But first, there’s plenty of economic news to dig through. We have stories on today’s fresh inflation data, energy prices, housing starts, and more. First though, Marketplace’s Justin Ho explains how the widening gender wage gap is making the economy less productive than it could be. —  Dylan Miettinen, digital producer

A U.S. Census Bureau report on how much income Americans pulled in last year, how much the median household income changed from 2024, and how that breaks down by race and gender, is scheduled to come out Tuesday.

One data point to keep an eye on is the wage gap between men and women, which has been widening since 2023. The causes include return-to-office orders — which put strain on women who are caregivers — as well as weaker demand for some of the lower-wage roles that were hot during the pandemic and which women tend to dominate, including administrative work and education.

The widening gender wage gap is making the economy less productive, primarily because it forces some women out of the labor force.

“If I’m a woman looking out to the marketplace to find a job, I already know that I’m starting from a lower level,” said Nicole Cervi, an economist with Wells Fargo.

Cervi said anyone who wants to enter the workforce has to know they’ll earn enough money to make it worth working — which often means enough to pay for childcare or elder care. The average cost of daycare in the U.S. can exceed in-state college tuition.

"And because we have this gender pay gap already in existence, for a lot of women, if they go out to the market and find a job, they’re not even going to earn enough to cover some of those unpaid responsibilities that they have,” Cervi said.

So some women decide that getting a job doesn’t work financially with their caregiving obligations. That means there is a lot of untapped potential out there. Cervi said from the perspective of an employer it’s untapped productivity: skilled workers who could be boosting output, but aren’t.

Bleak, but relatable. As renters grapple with the cost-of-living crisis and look for an outlet for their political energy, they’re turning to organizing. Enter: the tenant union. Marketplace digital intern Daniel Graham recently wrote about his firsthand experience with tenant organizing and dug into its history in the U.S.

I was 2 years old on Sept. 11, 2001. I was too young to remember any of what transpired that day. It feels like a world away, because it’s a lifetime away for me and many others. In fact, over a quarter of Americans were born after 9/11. We were outside playing as kids as Lower Manhattan rebuilt itself into a major economic hub . For us, experiences of 9/11 really only exist in museums, textbooks, and archival newscasts.

Today, I listened to the original broadcast of “Marketplace” that aired on Sept. 11, 2001. What always sticks out to me in news reports from that day is the fact that that Tuesday morning in early September was characterized by its normalcy. It was “an ordinary workday.” Between 40,000 and 50,000 people worked at the World Trade Center for 435 companies on any given day. In the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 2,977 people were killed. Thousands more have died from 9/11-related illnesses in its aftermath . So many people showed up for work and went about their mornings on Sept. 11, 2001; so many never returned home. 

After I write and send this newsletter, I’ll sign off and go for dinner, then a walk. It will have been the mundane machinations of a workday like any other. But if I look up and toward the Manhattan skyline — the post-9/11 one, the only one I’ve ever known — I’ll be able to see two beams of light piercing the night sky and commemorating the dead. I’ll take a moment, and remember the lives lost, and feel beyond blessed that my "ordinary workday” was just that.