Ever since the Equal Pay Act of 1963 officially abolished gender-based earnings discrepancies in the private sector, the wage gap between men and women has diminished, but not disappeared.
At the time the Equal Pay Act was passed, women earned 59 cents, on average, for every dollar men earned. Today, a woman working for the national median salary earns 78.9 cents for every dollar a male employee earns in the same field. (The median income for a full-time female worker is $39,315, whereas the median income for a full-time male worker is $49,838.) At this rate, the American Association of University Women estimates, we won’t reach full national wage parity until 2152.
The exact wage disparity between men and women, the professions in which wage disparity is greatest, and the effects of the gender gap on housing affordability vary widely in different metro statistical areas (MSAs). In order to determine which cities and jobs have the greatest (or least) gaps in pay, ABODO examined local salaries, job markets, and housing affordability statistics in various MSAs around the country and sorted them by their median income parity in the “Living in the Gap” report.
The firm also looked at the nation’s five fastest-growing occupations, as well as “an area that bears a heavy share of the wage gap’s impact: housing affordability,” said ABODO senior communications director Sam Radbil in a statement.
Of the 100 most-populous metros in the U.S., Durham–Chapel Hill, N.C., boasts the greatest income parity. Based on median data, women there earn 92.6 cents for every dollar a man does. It is the only MSA where women earn over 90% of a man’s salary. Second on the list is Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim, Calif., where women earn 89.5% of men’s salaries.
California has the most MSAs in the top 10 for wage parity, and Utah has the most MSAs in the top 10 for wage disparity. In Provo–Orem, Utah, women earn 63.1% of men’s salaries, followed by Baton Rouge, La., at 68.1%.
Nationwide, the legal field has the greatest income disparity of any occupation, with a 51.8% difference between a woman’s median pay and a man’s. ABODO acknowledges that salaries vary widely between professions but doesn’t explain why more men are in higher-earning jobs, or why female lawyers earn 78.2% as much as male lawyers.
Of the five fastest-growing job sectors in the country, women’s salaries are closest to men’s in community and social services (93.8%) and construction and extraction (88%).
Community and social service jobs are dominated by women, who hold 62% of the positions in this category. It was also the fastest-growing job category between 2012 and 2015.
In four of 25 MSAs examined, women in social services experience perfect income parity with, or even earn more than, men. In the Washington, D.C., metro area, women earn 3.8 cents more on the dollar than men in this field, followed by Cleveland–Elyria (2.6 cents), San Francisco–Oakland–Hayward (2.4 cents), and New York–Newark–Jersey City (0.4 cents).
ABODO notes that, apart from Cleveland, these areas have some of the highest rents in the country. A woman earning the median salary in social services in D.C., for example, can afford only a 950-square-foot apartment, whereas a woman in the same profession can afford a 1,456-square-foot apartment in Cleveland.
At present, only 2.4% of the nation’s construction and extraction workers are women, but the profession boasts one of the highest wage-parity figures, at 88%. Female first-line supervisors earn 89.6% of a male first-line supervisor’s salary, while female laborers earn 96.7% of what male laborers earn. In contrast, female helpers in the construction trades earn nearly 113% of a man’s earnings.
In nine of 25 MSAs examined, women earn more than men in the construction field. Memphis, TN–MS, leads this trend, at 121%. Other high-ranking areas include San Francisco, Seattle, Boston, and Los Angeles. Milwaukee scores lowest, at 61.1%.
The health-care sector has one of the least-equal pay structures of any profession, at 67.5%, despite the fact that 70% of health-care workers are women.
On a broader scale, based on 2015 Census one-year estimates in MSAs across the country, there are only two in which women earn at least as much as men, both in New Mexico: Santa Fe and Las Cruces. There are no MSAs in five-year estimates where women earn as much as men, however, and no occupation category, either.
While these wage gaps have myriad causes and potential sources, they do have concrete consequences as far as economic mobility and housing affordability. With the national median salary, women can afford up to 1,143 square feet of housing space, while men can afford up to 1,448 square feet—a gap that may only increase as housing costs continue to rise.
