Millennials have become the largest demographic in the small business work pool, so Paychex and HIS Markit recently collaborated on a study crunching the numbers regarding full-time employees in that population and analyzing the results.

"The Rise of the Millennial Employee: A Paychex | IHS Markit Small Business Employment Watch Special Report" revealed that millennials have comprised the single largest generational group in the small business workforce since 2016, with rapidly rising wages and paving the way towards closing the gender gap as well.

Researchers discovered that while millennial-aged females total slightly fewer than the national average for all age groups, the wage gap is slightly narrower than for all employees. Additionally, they found, wage growth increases faster for millennial males than for females.

"While it's disappointing that the gender pay gap persists, it's gratifying to document that the difference is less than half as large for Millennials than the all-generation workforce," James Diffley, IHS Markit’s chief regional economist, said.

Paychex President and CEO Martin Mucci added that this new generation of workers is redefining the characteristics of the nation’s labor pool.

"This report provides HR leaders with the most current data on population and wage trends with an eye toward recruiting, retaining, and developing their Millennial employees," Mucci said.