--- title: The 10 Best and Worst States for the Gender Wage Gap description: The wage gap is massive in many states. But it's relatively narrow in D.C. authors: - name: Ethan Wolff-Mann url: https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 160 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Personal Finance - Professional Services - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/ewolffmann former_staff: true published: '2015-09-24T15:21:04.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T06:54:07.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - equality - pubdesk - wage gap word_count: 241 canonical: https://money.com/best-worst-states-gender-wage-gap/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Equal Pay Best Worst States](https://img.money.com/2015/09/gettyimages-482019527-copy.jpg) *Sen. Barbara Mikulski, of Maryland waits for her colleagues to arrive before a news conference on the Senate steps of the Capitol to support equal pay for women and an increase in the minimum wage.* The American Association of University Women recently released [its latest report on the wage gap between men and women](http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/), and once again finds that the U.S. still has a long way to go toward gender equality. Today, a woman with full-time job earns 79 cents for every dollar earned by a man. (Though [some jobs have smaller wage gaps](https://money.com/careers-wage-gap-equal-pay/) than others.) The AAUW also shows the wage gap [state by state](http://www.aauw.org/files/2015/02/Fig-2_fall-2015-update.jpg), based on the latest Census data, as well as by [Congressional district](http://www.aauw.org/resource/gender-pay-gap-by-state-and-congressional-district/). In some part of the country, [Refinery29 notes](http://www.refinery29.com/state-pay-gap-ranking), the wage gap is similar to where the country was way back in the [early 1980s](http://www.pay-equity.org/info-time.html), when the average woman took home less than 65 cents for every dollar a man was paid. Here are the states with the biggest wage gaps, shown by the average pay for a full-time working woman per $1 earned by a man. 1. **Louisiana** 65 cents 2. **Utah** 67 cents 3. **Wyoming** 69 cents 4. **West Virginia** 70 cents 5. **North Dakota** 71 cents 6. **Alabama** 73 cents 7. **Idaho** 73 cents 8. **Oklahoma** 73 cents 9. **Montana** 74 cents 10. **Michigan** 75 cents Here are the states with the smallest wage gap: 1. **New York** 87 cents 2. **Hawaii** 86 cents 3. **Maryland** 85 cents 4. **Nevada** 85 cents 5. **Florida** 85 cents 6. **North Carolina** 85 cents 7. **California** 84 cents 8. **Arizona** 84 cents 9. **Vermont** 84 cents 10. **Connecticut** 83 cesnts Washington, D.C. gets an honorable mention with women earning a high of 90 cents on the male dollar. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/best-worst-states-gender-wage-gap/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Inequality and Discrimination", "item": "https://money.com/inequality-and-discrimination/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The 10 Best and Worst States for the Gender Wage Gap" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/best-worst-states-gender-wage-gap/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/best-worst-states-gender-wage-gap/", "name": "The 10 Best and Worst States for the Gender Wage Gap", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-09-24T15:21:04.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/best-worst-states-gender-wage-gap/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/best-worst-states-gender-wage-gap/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T06:54:07.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "The 10 Best and Worst States for the Gender Wage Gap", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/09/gettyimages-482019527-copy.jpg", "width": 4535, "height": 3022, "caption": "Equal Pay Best Worst States" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ethan Wolff-Mann", "url": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/ethan-wolff-mann/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/ewolffmann" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-09-24T15:21:04.000Z", "description": "The wage gap is massive in many states. 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