Examining the Gender Pay Gap at the State and Metropolitan Levels

Nationwide, many studies have shown that women make 80 cents for every dollar earned by men. This gender pay gap has stubbornly persisted for many years.

A new study by LendEDU examines the gender pay gap at the state and local levels. The study examined yearly median earnings by state or city and gender for full time, year-round workers. Data was collected for all 50 states and 664 metropolitan areas in the United States with at least 20,000 residents above the age of 16.

The data showed that in 2018, the smallest gender pay gap was in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Other cities where the gender pay gap was less than 5 percentage points were Boone, North Carolina, and Jackson, Wyoming. The largest gender pay gap in 2018 was in Hobbs, New Mexico. There, women earned nearly 47 percent less than men.

The study found that women made the greatest progress in the 2010 to 2018 period in Kerrville, Texas. In 2010 there was nearly a 31 percentage point gender gap in pay. By 2018, the gender pay gap was reduced to 11 percentage points. Other cities that had achieved a reduction of at least 14 percentage points during the period were Columbus, Mississippi, New Bern, North Carolina, Coos Bay, Oregon, Boone, North Carolina, Riverton, Wyoming, and Morgan City, Louisiana.

In Eagle Pass, Texas, the gender pay gap increased by more than 25 percentage points from 2010 to 2018. Other cities with significant increases in the gender pay gap were Red Bluff, California, Shelbyville, Tennessee, and Somerset, Kentucky.

At the state level, the biggest decreases in the gender pay gap occurred in Wyoming, Connecticut, Delaware, Arkansas, and New York. In Oklahoma and South Dakota, the gender pay gap actually increased. In Alabama, Louisiana, and Utah, the gender pay gap decreased by less than 1 percentage point.