In New Hampshire, women's median earnings were more than $18,000 lower than men's, while in neighboring Vermont the gap was only $6,450, the smallest wage difference between men and women in all states. This information comes from a recent Chamber of Commerce post that utilized the 2022 American Community Survey data from the Census Bureau to illustrate the state-by-state pay gap. The post referred to median earnings for full-time, year-round workers.
It was published prior to Equal Pay Day, set for March 12 this year. On National Equal Pay Day, President Joe Biden emphasized the injustice of gender wage gaps, noting how women have to work further into the year on average to match men's earnings from the previous year. These discrepancies can accumulate to millions lost over a woman's lifetime due to unfair wages. Explore the interactive map below to compare median earnings for men and women, specifically looking at full-time, year-round workers, and the disparity between their earnings.
A few states in the West had some of the smallest differences among the states — although these were still thousands of dollars. That included New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Nevada. For instance, New Mexico had a difference of $7,733, or women earning around 86% of the $53,356 men made.
The gap was $17,528 in Utah, where women earned 73% of the $65,278 men earned there. That share means that while Utah had the second largest difference in earnings, the gap between what women and men make as a percentage of the latter was actually the worst among the states.
Louisiana, Alabama, and New Hampshire all had shares of around 75%. The recent Chamber of Commerce post noted New Hampshire ranked No. 1 when ranking the difference in earnings by state, given the median earnings for women was $55,028 in this state. That was $18,044 less than men's earnings.
Meanwhile, women earned a high share of what men earned in Vermont, California, New York, Arizona, and Nevada. Their shares were all at least around 87%. The median earnings for women in Vermont and California were around 89% of the median earnings for men.
However, when looking at how women's pay compares to men's among those five states, New York did have the largest pay gap among them with a difference of $8,451.
