Economy

Women still typically make less than men. Here's how bad the pay gap is in every state.

Senator Patty Murray talking
Senator Patty Murray in 2023. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
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The median earnings of women in New Hampshire was over $18,000 less than the median for men, while neighboring Vermont had a gap of just $6,450, which was the smallest difference between the earnings of men and women among the states.

That's based on a recent Chamber of Commerce post that highlighted how the pay gap looked by state using 2022 American Community Survey data from the Census Bureau. The post cited median data for full-time, year-round workers that have earnings. The new post was published before Equal Pay Day, which is March 12 this year.

"On National Equal Pay Day, we highlight the injustice of gender wage gaps by marking how far into this year women have to work, on average, to earn what men made last year," a presidential proclamation from President Joe Biden said. "Over a lifetime, these inequities can amount to millions of dollars lost for women who do not receive the wages they deserve."

You can hover over each state in the map below to see what median earnings were for men and women who were full-time, year-round workers with earnings and the difference between these 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 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.

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Madison Hoff
Madison Hoff is a reporter on Business Insider’s economy team. She covers the labor market, inflation, spending, and other data. In addition to covering new estimates and trends, her workforce reporting includes career pivots, job searching, and side hustles.She also covers downsizing, particularly people selling their houses to pursue RV living. She has also reported on how much teachers spend out of pocket and what it’s like being a caregiver.Her stories often cover the state of the economy, what experts are saying, and how people are navigating the workplace or their careers.Previously, she was a junior reporter and data editorial fellow on the Strategy team.