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The Geography Of The Gender Pay Gap: Women's Earnings By State

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New year, new statistics? Not for the gender pay gap, one of the most oft-contested numbers in gender equality in the workplace. For more than a decade now, the comparison between the median earnings of full-time employed men and women in the U.S. has remained a stubborn 77%--that is, women earn roughly 77 cents on the dollar when stacked against the paychecks of white men.

The latest data shows that number hasn’t budged—and isn’t likely to in the next Census. Lisa Maatz, the policy director at the American Association of University Women calls the stat “depressingly predictable,” to the point where her organization doesn’t need to wait for the releases—they know what’s coming. But when you drill deeper into earnings statistics, it’s clear there is movement afoot: this year a total of  16 states boast women earning 80 cents or more to every male dollar, twice the count of 2010. It’s good news—but it’s worth a closer look.

To unearth the states where the gender gap is at its widest (unfair) and narrowest (least unfair?) we analyzed data from the latest 2012 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, using the mean earnings for full-time, year-round female workers by state, released today. When it comes to both ends of the fairness spectrum, it’s interesting to note that there are both societal and economic factors at play.

While some of the gender pay gap can be explained by the types of jobs and industries women and men are currently working in, the chasm shows that those choices are often constrained—and that even when at its narrowest, the gap between earnings has far-reaching implications.

So how is it possible that Nevada--home to the city of sin, showgirls and legal prostitution—ranks the highest among states in terms of gender paycheck equality?

One word: blackjack.  “Nevada is a state that’s biggest economic draws are travel, retail and entertainment,” says Maatz, sectors where smaller paygaps prevail. “A blackjack dealer’s a blackjack dealer.” She adds that gaming employees are among the most unionized. “Unions have always been very good for women in terms of getting their wages and benefits up to par.”

But beyond that it’s not all good news. According to experts often in regions where earnings are low across the board is where we see the slimmest gap in wages by gender. These same states are often regions with high proportions of unemployment. Bottom line: if you don’t have good opportunities for either men or women, a job is a job. Nevada suffers from a 9.5% unemployment rate, more than two points higher than the national average of 7.6%—and ranks one of the fairest states on this list.

Who’s the unfairest of them all? “Poor Wyoming,” Maatz says. It’s historically among the widest in terms of gender paygaps and did not disappoint (or was consistently disappointing depending on how you look at it) in 2012: full-time, year-round female employees in the state earn roughly 64 cents on the dollar to their male peers. The farming and ranching culture must play a factor here, she posits. “Ask any rancher and they’ll tell you that running that property is a family affair—but it would be curious to know more about reported income.” Are male proprietors the only listed employee? Are wives compensated for their work on the books? Cultural norms in rural communities often have big impact on earning power.

Also near the bottom: Louisiana, West Virginia, Utah and Alabama, states where Maatz notes access to education to women is harder to come by. “For women, even more than men, the difference between earnings from a high school education to an undergraduate degree is massive,” she says. “The educational advantage for women in terms of pay parity is enormous.”

It’s near the middle of the road—closer to that oft-repeated 77 cents—that I find the latest statistics most interesting… and maybe because they hit closer to home. Look at New Jersey and Connecticut, feeder states to New York’s economic bustle. In both states women can expect healthy salaries—upwards of $47,000 as a median isn’t bad—but they earn 79 and 78 cents on the dollar respectively. What gives?

It turns out access to education and a train ride away from great jobs doesn’t mean all that much. Historically speaking, where there’s a large concentration of jobs in very high-paying occupations like finance, media and law, you’ll often (and unfortunately) find more men in those occupations than women which can skew the overall pay gap.

To add fuel to the fire of gender differences, there are also some traditional gender distributions at play in the state. Women with highly-compensated partners are often found in part-time or in lower earning jobs by choice rather than out of necessity—particularly in the case of families with children. Maatz is quick to point out that the notion of “choice” isn’t necessarily all that freeing. “I don’t think women are ever choosing jobs that they consciously know are paying them unfairly,” she says. Instead, she says it’s normal in a family for one partner to choose a career path that’s more flexible or conducive to children—“but in most cases the person who decides to do that is the person who makes less to begin with.”

The biggest detractors of the very notion of the gender pay gap will wheedle this point—as they regularly point to the 77 cent statistic with wagging fingers. “It’s not apples to apples!” they admonish. “Women make choices!” they judge. And they’re right. The 77 cent statistic—as well as the rankings we’re looking at today—are median earnings of ALL full-time employed women against the earnings of full-time employed white men. As such, choices aren’t taken into account—choices like education and career path—that can impact pay grade.

But even when you do compare the same job, the same college, the same major, the same boss, there’s still a gap—and it’s problematic, says Maatz. In many instances, depending on the job or the salary level, it can be as small as a 7-10% gap between what, say, a male and female partner of the same law firm take home each year. But it’s the position of organizations like the AAUW (not to mention my own) that narrowing a depressingly wide gap with out eradicating it completely is still a massive problem. If you tell me there’s only a 7-10% gap between what I make and the guy sitting next to me does for the same job am I meant to be pleased by it?

(Hint: I’m not. So never ask me again.)

And what’s worse, that’s a chasm that, over time, means way more than 26 paychecks. “That’s a gap that’s proved to grow year over year,” Maatz says, “and as such impacts long-term earnings, retirement savings and more.

Considering the fact that, put bluntly, women take a little longer to die than men, the fact that we’re left short-changed as a result of the pay gap is only insult to injury. Critics of the gender pay gap are right to question the apples-to-apples nature of median earnings statistics—it’s fair—but as Maatz puts so poetically, it may be a case of not being able to see the forest through the trees.