Cities & States With the Biggest Female Wage Gap

March is Women’s History Month. To honor the occasion, researchers at TruckInfo.net decided to analyze the impact women have had on the labor force, how they are represented across various occupations, the wage gap, and how it’s changed over time.

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Using data from the US Census Bureau and Department of Labor, they found the following trends.

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1. The labor force continues to become more female

In 1948, women only accounted for 28% of the labor force. While female representation rapidly increased until the early 90s, growth has slowed considerably – from 45% in 1990 to just under 47% in 2022.

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2. While women make up just under half of the labor force, many occupations are highly segregated

Women have entered the workforce in mass – dominating certain occupations though avoiding others. While women make up more than 97% of preschool and kindergarten teachers, they only represent 1.6% of automotive technicians and mechanics.

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Female-dominated occupations

^{Only occupations with at least 10k male employees and 10k female employees included in analysis}

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Male-dominated occupations

^{Only occupations with at least 10k male employees and 10k female employees included in analysis}

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3. The wage gap exists across the country – but not in every occupation

Although the wage gap has become politically charged, there’s no denying it exists. Some female academics have pointed out that since most wage gap analyses don’t account for things like seniority or hours worked, it doesn’t mean there is significant gender discrimination. Still, others counter that those factors are examples of differential treatment or societal expectations.

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Regardless of the cause, women that work full-time make $0.82 for every $1 men that work full-time make. Interestingly, occupations that skew heavily male actually pay women better than occupations that skew heavily female (though the wage gap still persists).

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Female pay in female-dominated occupations

^{Only occupations with at least 10k male employees and 10k female employees included in analysis}

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Female executives assistants make $1.06 for every dollar a male assistant makes.

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Female pay in male-dominated occupations

^{Only occupations with at least 10k male employees and 10k female employees included in analysis}

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Wage gap by state

At the state level, Vermont has the smallest wage gap while Utah has the largest.

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Large cities with the largest wage gap

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Large cities with the smallest wage gap

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4. While the wage gap persists, female wages have grown faster than men’s wages since 2010

In Vermont, female wages have grown 151% faster than male wages since 2010. While an outlier, the majority of states have seen female wages grow 120%+ faster than male wages over the same period.

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Full Data

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Methodology & Data Sources

Income and employment data was sourced from the US Census Bureau. The top and bottom 10 lists for female occupations filtered out occupations with fewer than 10,000 individuals for males and females. Data on the labor force composition over time was sourced from the Department of Labor.

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Large cities were defined as cities with a population over 350,000; mid-size cities as populations from 150,000-349,999; and small cities as populations under 150,000.