No Matter the State, the Wage Gap Persists

For more about state poverty and wage numbers, please go to our overview page on the state-by-state 2010 Census data.

Just last week, the Census Bureau released data that showed no improvement in the wage gap – nationally, women who worked full time, year round were paid 23 cents less for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. This gap in earnings totals to nearly $11,000.

The wage gap for women of color was even worse. Black and Hispanic women working full time, year round were paid only 62 cents and 54 cents, respectively, for every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts – no substantial differences from 2009.

Today, the Census Bureau released data on earnings from the American Community Survey, a survey that provides median earnings for men and women by state and NWLC has calculated the wage gap for each state. In 2010, the District of Columbia had the smallest wage gap – women working full time, year round, were paid 91.4 percent of what their male counterparts were paid. In the next closest state, Vermont, women earned 84.3 percent of what their male counterparts made. And two years in a row, Wyoming was the state with the largest wage gap, with women making just 63.8 percent of what their male counterparts are paid.

In light of the new data showing no real improvement in the wage gap, we urge Congress to strengthen equal pay legislation by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act. This Act would prohibit employers from retaliating against victims of pay discrimination, help deter employers who actively engage in pay discrimination and encourage victims of such practices to enforce their rights, and close loopholes in prior equal pay legislation that has allowed gender discrimination in compensation to continue.

Additionally, NWLC strongly supports the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs’ (OFCCP) proposal for a new compensation data tool to combat pay discrimination in federal contractor workplaces. The proposed OFCCP survey will provide the agency with tools to help OFCCP enforce the laws that ban discrimination in pay by federal contractors.

What’s clear from today’s data is that whether you are in Wyoming or Louisiana or even Vermont, where the wage gap stands at 16 cents, working women and their families cannot wait any longer. It’s time to move forward on these policies.