Gender pay gap in this NC city is one of the highest in the US, new study says. Here’s why
Women in Raleigh make $0.77 for every $1 that men in the city make.
That figure is lower than the national rate, as of 2022, when a Pew Research Center study found that women earned $0.82 for every dollar earned by men.
It’s also low among U.S. cities with a comparable population, according to a recent report from TruckInfo.net. The study, published Thursday, Feb. 20, analyzed income data from the U.S. Census in “large” cities such as Raleigh, which have a population over 350,000, to create a ranking of places with the largest gender pay gap.
“We are fairly prosperous in the Raleigh area, but prosperity tends to come with men being able to get a lot higher pay versus women,” Anne York, a professor of economics at Meredith College in Raleigh, told The News & Observer in an interview.
Here’s what to know about the study.
What is the gender pay gap?
First, a definition. The gender pay gap, or wage gap, is a ratio of women’s median pay to men’s median pay, for full-time, year-round workers.
Average pay can be skewed by high or low extremes, so the median is used in calculations, York said.
The TruckInfo.net report used median earnings data for males and females to calculate Raleigh’s gender pay gap: $0.77. The closer that number is to $1, the closer are men’s and women’s median pay.
How does the gender pay gap in Raleigh compare to other large cities?
Among cities with a population of at least 350,000, Raleigh has one of the highest wage gaps:
- El Paso, Texas: $0.70
- Wichita, Kansas: $0.70
- Colorado Springs, Colorado: $0.71
- San Jose, California: $0.72
- Fort Worth, Texas: $0.75
- Bakersfield, California: $0.76
- Virginia Beach, Virginia: $0.76
- Miami, Florida: $0.77
- Raleigh, North Carolina: $0.77
- Seattle, Washington: $0.77
Cities with lower wage gaps, where median earnings for males and females are more similar, include Columbus, Ohio ($0.93), Sacramento, California ($0.93), and Baltimore, Maryland ($0.90).
In Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city, females make $0.80 for every $1 that males make, according to the study.
Which factors affect the wage gap?
Characteristics including education level and work experience can affect an individual’s salary. But larger trends play a role.
“Women tend to dominate in lower-paying occupations. Men tend to dominate in higher-paying occupations,” York said. “So just when you lump that whole distribution together, you will see more women on the lower-pay end, more men on the higher-pay end.”
From there, it’s just math. As the median salary for females (the numerator) gets smaller, and the median salary for males (the denominator) gets larger, the quotient — the percentage of men’s pay that women make — slides toward zero.
Some of Wake County’s top industries, according to the North Carolina Department of Commerce, are health care and social assistance, and professional and scientific services — which often require advanced degrees. And the gap widens among males and females who have bachelor’s or master’s degrees, York said.
But there are still some driving factors that economists can’t determine.
“Once we control for all the things that could explain why there’s a difference in pay between men and women, we still, we do not fully explain it,” York said.
Gender- or sex-based discrimination could be one reason for the difference in pay, York said. So could societal expectations or stereotypes — like women are better caregivers, so they should be early childhood educators, or men are better at math, so they should pursue a career in computer science.
Are there any exceptions to the overall trend?
Yes. In occupations such as executive secretaries and administrative assistants, women are paid more than men, the TruckInfo.net study found.
Still, though, the pay is skewed just slightly toward women in those cases.
The pay gap is smaller among younger people, between the ages of 16 and 34, York said. It’s also smaller among men and women who only have a high school diploma or associate degree; for those people, salaries and job opportunities are limited.
Whatever the reasons, the gender pay gap has improved over time. The gender wage gap now is smaller than it was decades ago.
“We certainly want more women to go into occupations that are male-dominated, but no one’s talking about men going into occupations that are female-dominated,” York said. “If we could solve the occupational mix issue, that would go a long ways toward closing the gender pay gap.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
