Narrowing the Pay Gap

II %3D II III II %3D NARROWING THE PAY GAP One of the key economic issues President Obama spoke about in his 2014 State of the Union address was the pressing need to decrease the nation's gender pay gap. According to a report from the White House Council of Economic Advisers, full-time female workers in the U.S. currently earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn. In honor of Equal Pay Day 2014, NerdWallet took a look at gender pay gaps across the country. States with the Smallest Gender Pay Gaps We measured men's pay as a percentage of women's pay to see which states have the smallest gender pay gaps. $38,017 women $44,776 men 117.8% VERMONT $43,000 women NEW YORK 119.2% $51,274 men MARYLAND WASHINGTON, DC $35,941 women 117.2% NEVADA $42,137 men $49,000 women $57,447 men 117.2% $60,116 women 111.0% $66,754 men Cities with the Fastest Decreasing Gender Pay Gaps Nationwide, the gap between the average wages of full-time male and female workers improved by 2.2% between 2007 and 2012. We crunched the numbers to find the top 5 cities (with populations of at least 100,000) that experienced the greatest improvement in gender pay gaps. Women $33,234 Men $50,616 37.9% MURFREESBORO improvement Women $36,549 TENNESSEE Men $41,799 Women $42,172 2 Men $68,457 33.5% CENTENNIAL improvement COLORADO Women $53,942 Men $69,494 Women $32,362 3 33.2% $46,693 Men LOWELL improvement MASSACHUSETTS Women $38,356 Men $42,619 Women $29,530 4 30.8% Men $43,144 SIOUX FALLS improvement SOUTH DAKOTA Women $34,073 Men $39,296 Women $28,478 Men $38,766 SAN BERNARDINO 30.4% CALIFORNIA improvement Women $31,989 Men $33,831 nerdwallet Source: U.S. Census Bureau EEEEE 2012 2007 2012 2007 2012 2007 2012 2007 2012 2007 EEEEE