On average, American men earn more than women. According to recent Census Bureau data, at all ages, the median annual income for women was 82% of that of men for full-time employees.
This gender pay gap is smaller when women are younger. People under 30 earn an average of 93 cents for every dollar made by a man in a comparable position. A new study from the Pew Research Center that analyzed Census Bureau data from 2015 to 2019 gives an in-depth look at where these narrow pay gaps are really occurring.
In 22 major metropolitan areas, including New York City, Washington and Los Angeles, women under the age of 30 were earning the same or significantly more than their male peers.
“Women in the early years of entering the labor market during their teens and 20s have the greatest equality with men,” Richard Fry, senior economist at the Pew Research Study, told HuffPost. “As you follow them over time, the pay gap widens.”
Metro areas in the US where women under 30 start their careers at the same rate as men.
Of the 250 major US metropolitan areas the study examined, 22 were those in which women under 30 were working full-time, at or above pay parity with men:
- Barnstable Town, Massachusetts (112%)
- Champagne-Urbana, Illinois (102%)
- Flagstaff, Arizona (100%)
- Gainesville, FL (110%)
- Iowa City, Iowa (101%)
- Lebanon, Pennsylvania (102%)
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anheim metro area (100%)
- Morgantown, West Virginia (114%)
- Naples-Imokli-Marco Island, Florida metro area (108%)
- New York City-Newark-Jersey city area (102%)
- Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, California (100%)
- Richmond, Virginia (100%)
- Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, California (101%)
- San Angelo, TX (102%)
- San Diego-Carlsbad, California (105%)
- San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles-Arroyo Grande, California (100%)
- Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, California (101%)
- Honolulu, Hawaii (100%)
- Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC metro area (102%)
- Wenatchee, Washington (120%)
- Winston-Salem, North Carolina (101%)
- Yuba City, California (105%)
According to a Pew analysis, these urban areas comprise about 16% of all young women in the US in full-time jobs throughout the year.
Midwestern metropolitan areas had the largest gender gap among young workers, with women earning about 90% of the wages of their male counterparts. In the southern and western metropolitan areas, they earned about 95%, and in the Northeast, they earned 94%.
“If you’re living in the Midwest, pay parity becomes more elusive,” Fry said.
University cities that attracted young people, such as Morgantown, West Virginia, San Diego, California, and Gainesville, Florida, were on the parity list above for young women, as well as major urban areas such as New York City.
“We know that college cities tend to retain college-goers there,” said Linda Babcock, an economist at Carnegie Mellon University who researches gender differences in conversation and promotion. “Education is going to create more opportunities for women in more white-collar, professional-type jobs, and are going to pay more than those going to men who are less likely to be college-educated. “
One reason for the higher incomes of women in these areas may be the college achievement level of youth workers. Fry points to national research that found more young women today than men are likely to complete a bachelor’s degree. It tracks with a statistical pattern it found.
“The amount of pay parity is positively associated with how well educated young women fare compared to youth living in that metro area,” Fry said.
“Young women have really stepped up their game in the skills they bring to the labor market,” she said. “They are well ahead of men in completing college, and this is contributing to bridging the pay gap.”
Unfortunately, the gap widens after 30.
Salary benefits that women gain early in their careers are unlikely to hold. A Pew Research study citing census data showed that in 2000, a woman aged 16 to 29 was working all year long A youth in a similar role earned an average of 88%. But as of 2019, when these workers were in the age group of 35 to 48, women were earning only 80% compared to their male peers.
Fry said the “motherhood penalty” may have caused women to lose pay parity over time. While men are seen as more mature and committed to their work when they have children, women are seen first as mothers, second as workers. Using decades of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, research group Third Way found that women lose an average of 4% of their hourly earnings for each of their children, while men earn 6% more.
Sarah Small, a researcher at the Rutgers Center for Women and Work, said, “Many women under the age of 30, especially in major metropolitan areas, do not yet have children and therefore have not been subjected to the ‘motherhood penalty’ early in their careers.” Is.” “Once women have children, they often leave the labor force to provide child care, meaning there are gaps in their resumes during which their male counterparts are receiving promotions and raises.”
Women with children face give-and-lose choices: They are punished for taking career breaks And Punished for staying in the workforce as mothers. Studies have shown that hiring managers may view mothers as less competent and less committed to their jobs.
Even when women don’t become mothers, they are more likely to suffer the disadvantages of being harassed by work, which can lead to them not being promoted over time than men, Babcock said. . when is not He said equal pay for equal work, which contributes to the pay gap.
“Helping others do their jobs, training new employees, hiring summer apprentices, planning an office party, taking notes in meetings… your performance appraisal, and our research shows that women are more likely than men.” a lot of these than they do,” said Babcock, who co-authored the upcoming book “The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work.” “This may actually be a big factor in why women’s advancement lags behind men’s, as women are tasked with doing this work.”
Overall, the study shows that young women have a better start than younger men in some US cities, but they may lose that edge during the prime earning years of a career.
“The study is certainly encouraging, but it represents just a select group of American women,” Smalls said. “We still have a long way to go to bridge the gender pay gap across the country and across all age groups.”
