--- title: Best and Worst U.S. Cities for Women's Pay Equality description: Women seeking fair pay might consider working in one of these big U.S. cities where the gender wage gap is narrowest. authors: - name: Susie Poppick url: https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/ at_money_since: 2013 articles: 117 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/susiepoppick former_staff: true published: '2015-11-05T11:00:29.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T07:26:36.000Z' section: Career Advice tags: - gender - pay - pay gap - salary - wage gap word_count: 367 canonical: https://money.com/gender-wage-gap-best-worst-cities/ 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/). ![St. Louis, Missouri (top) and Baltimore, Maryland (bottom)](https://img.money.com/2015/11/151105_car_wagegap_cities.jpg) *St. Louis, Missouri (top) and Baltimore, Maryland (bottom)* Women seeking fair pay might consider a move to Baltimore. Among the 20 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, a new PayScale report shows, Baltimore has the narrowest wage gap between men and women when controlled for workers with the same job, skills, and education. Working women in the Baltimore-Towson metro area are paid 0.6% less than equally qualified men, the survey of 1.4 million full-time workers found. That's in contrast with a difference of 4.3% in St. Louis, where the pay gap is largest. (The controlled gap for women is 2.7% nationally.) * * * * * * While the study found that Baltimore had the fairest wages overall—and that its single, childless women actually earn 2.5% *more* than their male peers—the same could not be same for the city's married female workers with children. Mirroring a national trend, Baltimore women in that category earn 5.6% less than equally qualified male residents. **Married, With Children** For married women with children, the survey found the worst pay gap in Detroit, where working mothers earn 7.0% less than male peers. The fairest wages for women with families were in Boston, which had a pay gap of 1.9%. Tampa and Los Angeles were second best, with gaps of 2.5% for women with husbands and kids. **Read Next: [Kids Killing Your Career? Only If You're A Woman](https://money.com/pay-gap-working-women-men-difference/)** Interestingly, single women with or without children—and married women without kids—all out-earned male peers in Tampa. In two Southern California cities, women in certain categories out-earned men by a significant margin. In Riverside, married women without kids earn 3.7% more than equally qualified men, and single mothers in San Diego get paid nearly 5% more than male peers. As for the uncontrolled pay gap— a simple comparison of male and female median wages, regardless of job or qualifications—the survey found the "fairest" city to be Miami, where median pay is $46,100 for women and $57,700 for men. That's a pay gap of about 20%. The most unequal city? That again would be Detroit, where median salary is $65,200 for men and only $43,500 for women, for a difference of 33%. **Read More:** **Best and Worst States for the Gender Pay Gap** **[This Is When the Gender Wage Gap Widens the Most](https://money.com/pay-gap-women-age-wages-earnings/)** ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/gender-wage-gap-best-worst-cities/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Career Advice", "item": "https://money.com/career-advice/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Salaries and Wages", "item": "https://money.com/salaries-and-wages/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Best and Worst U.S. Cities for Women's Pay Equality" } ] }, { "@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/gender-wage-gap-best-worst-cities/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/gender-wage-gap-best-worst-cities/", "name": "Best and Worst U.S. Cities for Women's Pay Equality", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-11-05T11:00:29.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/gender-wage-gap-best-worst-cities/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/gender-wage-gap-best-worst-cities/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T07:26:36.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Best and Worst U.S. Cities for Women's Pay Equality", "articleSection": "Career Advice", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/11/151105_car_wagegap_cities.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1400, "caption": "151105_CAR_WageGap_Cities" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susie Poppick", "url": "https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/susie-poppick/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/05/14-05-21_bio_author_poppick.jpg?quality=85&w=190&h=190&crop=1", "email": "susie_poppick@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/susiepoppick" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-11-05T11:00:29.000Z", "description": "Women seeking fair pay might consider working in one of these big U.S. cities where the gender wage gap is narrowest.", "abstract": "Women seeking fair pay might consider working in one of these big U.S. cities where the gender wage gap is narrowest.", "@id": "https://money.com/gender-wage-gap-best-worst-cities/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-16T07:26:36.000Z", "wordCount": 367, "keywords": [ "gender", "pay", "pay gap", "salary", "wage gap" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Career counseling", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Career_counseling" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Wages and salaries", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wages_and_salaries" ] } ] } ] } ```