One chart shows how much more men make than women in 25 major cities
- In 2018, American women earn 19.5% less than their male colleagues, according to the US Census Bureau.
- A recent analysis looks at gender wage gaps between white men and women of four different races in 25 major US metro areas.
- In every city included in the report, Hispanic women fare the worst.
- Tampa, Florida has the narrowest gender wage gap in the dataset overall, and Seattle, Washington has the widest, according to the analysis.
Tuesday is Equal Pay Day, which is meant to bring attention to the gender wage gap in the US. While women graduate from college at higher rates than men, the former still earn less than the latter in 2018.
According to US Census Bureau data, the gender wage gap stands at around 19.5% nationwide on average. (e.g. If a man makes $50,000 a year, his female coworker with the same role might earn $40,250.)
But the wage gap differs depending on several factors, especially race and location.
A recent report from the American Association of University Women (AAUW), a nonprofit that advocates for gender equality, analyzes salary disparities in 25 major metro areas across the US.
In the chart by Business Insider below, you can see how cities stack up against each other.
The "overall gender pay ratios" compare the median salaries for women and men (of every race) who work full-time, year-round. Segmenting Census data by four different races for women, the AAUW also looked at how those median earnings compare to what white men make.
The analysis shows that large disparities exist between men's and women's salaries in each of these cities, with the widest gaps appearing to exist between Hispanic women and white men. In Houston, Texas, Hispanic women earn around 35% of what white men make. Detroit, where Asian women tend to make 2% more than white men, is an outlier.
Out of the 25 metros, the narrowest gender wage gap overall is in Tampa, Florida, where women make approximately 89% of the median salary for men. That said, the ratios for Hispanic and black women are 61% and 65%, respectively, compared to white men. There, white women earn 80% of white men's salaries.
The gender wage gap appears to be especially bad in tech hubs, like Seattle (the home of Amazon) and the Bay Area (the home of Silicon Valley). As BI's Avery Hartmans previously reported, a 2016 survey of 10,000 American tech employees found an overall gender wage disparity of 30% in Seattle and 20% in San Francisco. In Seattle, the report found, women working in tech make about $110,000, while men make $143,000.
Since 1979, the gender pay gap has narrowed, but at the same time, it has stayed relatively stable over the past 15 years or so. A number of experts have weighed in on what perpetuates the disparity, including taking time off to raise children, and the fact that fewer women often work in the highest-paying industries.
But as the Pew Research Center notes this week, another factor - gender discrimination at work - is harder to quantify. In a survey conducted in 2017, roughly four in 10 working women say they experience gender discrimination, with the highest percentage reporting that they earn a lower salary than their male colleagues for the same job.