Wage Gap (%)
The wage gap (the difference between men’s wages and women’s wages) is an important indicator of women’s economic security because it reflects a major economic hurdle that endangers women’s health and well-being. The wage gap cannot be dismissed as the result of “women’s choices” in career and family matters. In fact, recent authoritative studies show that even when all relevant career and family attributes are taken into account, there is still a significant, unexplained gap in men’s and women’s earnings. Even when women make the same career choices as men and work the same hours, they still earn less.1
What is the wage gap between male and female wage earners?
The Report Card uses a benchmark of women earning 100 percent of what men earn.
| State | State Overall Data | State Grade | State Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama 4 | 74.2 | F | 39 |
| Alaska 4 | 76.5 | F | 30 |
| Arizona 4 | 82.7 | F | 3 |
| Arkansas 4 | 78.5 | F | 15 |
| California 4 | 82.7 | F | 2 |
| Colorado 4 | 79.3 | F | 11 |
| Connecticut 4 | 73.9 | F | 40 |
| Delaware 4 | 78.4 | F | 17 |
| District of Columbia 4 | 88.2 | U | 1 |
| Florida 4 | 82.1 | F | 6 |
| Georgia 4 | 78.9 | F | 14 |
| Hawaii 4 | 78.4 | F | 18 |
| Idaho 4 | 72.0 | F | 45 |
| Illinois 4 | 76.7 | F | 26 |
| Indiana 4 | 72.8 | F | 44 |
| Iowa 4 | 73.7 | F | 42 |
| Kansas 4 | 76.1 | F | 31 |
| Kentucky 4 | 74.8 | F | 38 |
| Louisiana 4 | 66.4 | F | 50 |
| Maine 4 | 76.7 | F | 27 |
| Maryland 4 | 81.5 | F | 7 |
| Massachusetts 4 | 79.2 | F | 12 |
| Michigan 4 | 71.9 | F | 46 |
| Minnesota 4 | 78.4 | F | 16 |
| Mississippi 4 | 76.0 | F | 32 |
| Missouri 4 | 76.8 | F | 25 |
| Montana 4 | 71.5 | F | 47 |
| Nebraska 4 | 77.3 | F | 22 |
| Nevada 4 | 82.2 | F | 5 |
| New Hampshire 4 | 73.8 | F | 41 |
| New Jersey 4 | 76.5 | F | 29 |
| New Mexico 4 | 77.3 | F | 23 |
| New York 5 | 82.5 | F | 4 |
| North Carolina 4 | 80.7 | F | 8 |
| North Dakota 4 | 73.1 | F | 43 |
| Ohio 4 | 75.4 | F | 34 |
| Oklahoma 4 | 75.1 | F | 35 |
| Oregon 4 | 76.6 | F | 28 |
| Pennsylvania 4 | 75.5 | F | 33 |
| Rhode Island 4 | 79.4 | F | 10 |
| South Carolina 4 | 78.2 | F | 20 |
| South Dakota 4 | 77.1 | F | 24 |
| Tennessee 4 | 79.0 | F | 13 |
| Texas 4 | 80.2 | F | 9 |
| Utah 4 | 68.1 | F | 49 |
| Vermont 4 | 78.0 | F | 21 |
| Virginia 4 | 78.3 | F | 19 |
| Washington 4 | 75.1 | F | 36 |
| West Virginia 4 | 69.2 | F | 48 |
| Wisconsin 4 | 75.0 | F | 37 |
| Wyoming 4 | 65.5 | F | 51 |
Data Source: Wage Gap (%), 2009.
EXPLANATION: The wage gap is a term used to describe the difference of median annual income earned by non-institutionalized women and men age 16 and older who worked full-time, year-round (more than 49 weeks during the year and more than 34 hours per week) in 2009. It is a ratio of the median earnings of women to those of men.
SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS), “Men’s and Women’s Earnings by State: 2009” (September 2010), Available at http://www.census.gov/acs/www/.
Footnotes
1National Women’s Law Center, “Falling Short in Every State: The Wage Gap and Harsh Economic Realities for Women Persist,” April 2009, available at http://www.nwlc.org/resource/falling-short-every-state-wage-gap-and-hars...
