The finance portal SmartAsset conducted an analysis and found that there are cities in the U.S. where women earn more than men, although the gender pay gap remains high in the rest of the country
The gender wage gap in the United States remains woefully disparate. However, despite the fact that in most states in the country women earn less than men, there are three cities in which women out-earn men, and in four other cities the difference is almost imperceptible.
SmartAsset, a personal finance site, conducted an analysis based on census data, and found that there are three U.S. cities where women earn more than men.
Women working full-time in Hollywood, Florida, earn an average of $47,500 per year, or 104.76% of what men earn, according to the report. The city, which has approximately 152,000 residents, also saw women’s wages increase by nearly 33% between 2017 and 2021, and the wage gap narrowed by 26% during that time.
The other two cities where women have a higher median income than their male counterparts are Oakland, California, and Springfield, Massachusetts, with a rate of 102.73% and 102.09%, respectively.
The study also found four other cities where the gap between men and women is not that different, if anything with a difference hovering between 1% and 2%. In Oceanside, California (99.95%), Dallas, Texas (99.62%), Oxnard, California (98.98%), and Denton, Texas: (98.05%) women can worry about their income, because the difference with their male counterparts is minimal.
SmartAsset’s analysis takes a look at the 200 largest U.S. cities and compares data on four metrics: the median annual earnings of women versus men, the gross difference between women’s and men’s annual earnings, how much the wage gap has changed over the past four years, and how much women’s earnings have changed over the past four years.
The wage gap widened in the 10 largest U.S. cities, according to SmartAsset, with the biggest drop in San Antonio, Texas, where women went from earning 91 cents for every dollar earned by a man to 82 cents over the past four years.
On the positive side of the data, cities making the most progress, narrowing the wage gap in recent years include Hollywood, Florida; Oceanside, California; Birmingham, Alabama; Santa Clarita, California; and Denton, Texas.
The national gender wage gap has persisted for decades. It now stands at the average woman receiving 82 cents for every dollar paid to a man, according to Census Bureau estimates. The gap widens for most women of color.
What’s sadder is that national economic decisions, such as the Federal Reserve (Fed) raising interest rates, which affect wage increases, have a greater impact on women. Experts have pointed out that if the central bank stubbornly maintains these measures to stall the economy, it could lead us into a recession and the wage gap could widen, hurting the pocketbooks of working women.