EQUAL PAY DAY

Frisco has the 2nd largest gender pay gap in the U.S., new study finds

Men still make more than women.

If you thought March 14 was solely dedicated to Pi Day, you’d be wrong. Equal Pay Day is also celebrated on the same day - a day to examine the decades of advocacy to extinguish the pay gap between men and women.

Unfortunately, nationwide the gap is still large. The latest Census Bureau says women make 18 percent less money than men do. We know the numbers for Texas and several of its cities, thanks to a new study by small biz experts Chamber of Commerce. They investigated the earnings for full-time workers in 170 of the most populous cities in the United States.

The analysis found that Texas has the 29th largest pay gap out of all 50 states, with women making nearly $11,000 less than men. Texas women can be glad they don’t live in Wyoming, which has the largest pay gap of the states at almost $19,000.

Just how do DFW cities stack up?

The news is not great. Several of the area’s suburban cities have higher gender pay gaps, including Frisco, which has the second highest in the nation (behind the Silicon Valley city of Sunnyvale, California). McKinney also appears in the top five for the highest pay gaps, landing at No. 5. Frisco men make nearly $40,000 more than women, while McKinney men make $29,000 more than women.

Just outside the top 10 is Plano at No. 12, with their gender pay gap adding up to $20,736.

The news is better inside Dallas city limits. Dallas has one of the smallest gender pay gaps nationwide, according to the report. The gender pay gap in Dallas is just $192 between full-time working men and women. In Oceanside, California (No. 167), that gap is even smaller, at $26. In the three top cities with the smallest gender pay gaps, women make between $969-$2,155 more than their male counterparts.

The top 5 U.S. cities with the smallest gender pay gaps are:

No. 170 – Hollywood, Florida
No. 169 – Oakland, California
No. 168 – Springfield, Massachusetts
No. 167 – Oceanside, California
No. 166 – Dallas

Other Texas cities that (disappointingly) have wider pay gaps include:

No. 2 – Frisco
No. 5 – McKinney
No. 12 – Plano
No. 13 – Austin
No. 25 – Pasadena
No. 30 – Lubbock
No. 45 – Fort Worth
No. 70 – Irving
No. 71 – Corpus Christi
No. 74 – San Antonio
No. 89 – Arlington
No. 93 – Grand Prairie
No 97 – El Paso
No. 101 – Laredo
No. 110 – Amarillo
No. 114 – Houston
No. 125 – Brownsville
No. 134 – Garland

In a different analysis of folks with a Bachelor’s degree, Frisco has the No. 1 largest gender pay gap between men and women. With a shocking $66,386 difference, men make more than double what women make in the Dallas suburb. The Texas city with the smallest gender pay gap for men and women who have Bachelor’s degrees is Grand Prairie (No. 164). Grand Prairie men make $1,741 more than their female counterparts do.

The full study can be found on chamberofcommerce.org.

Gender Pay Gap Texas Pay Gap dallas pay gap equal pay day rankings

Politics News

Dallas narrows down field for new city manager to 4 candidates

Photo by R K on Unsplash

This is an Dallasite's sign to launch that small business they've been dreaming of.

After six months without a city manager, the city of Dallas has narrowed down the field of replacements to four semifinalists including one serving as current interim city manager, plus candidates from Fort Worth, Michigan, and Georgia.

Dallas has been without a city manager since May, when previous city manager T.C. Broadnax left to take a job with the city of Austin. Since that time, Broadnax's former chief of staff Kimberly Bizor Tolbert has served as interim city manager.

The city retained Baker Tilly, a consulting firm, to recruit and compile candidates. (Baker Tilly famously erred in the brochure it created for the position by featuring a photo of the Houston skyline instead of Dallas; they've since replaced it with Dallas.)

A spokesperson for Baker Tilly did not respond to inquiries but according to D Magazine, an email listing the candidates has been sent to the Dallas City Council.

The semifinalists include:

Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, Dallas’ current interim city manager
William Johnson, an assistant city manager in Fort Worth
Mark Washington, the city manager of Grand Rapids, Michigan
Zachary Williams, a county chief operating officer in Georgia

All have more than 25 years' of public administration experience and have worked in similar capacities in their respective cities.

Before working in Fort Worth, Johnson was Baltimore’s transportation director and Atlanta’s deputy chief operating officer and public works commissioner.

Washington worked in Fort Worth and Austin before becoming Grand Rapids’ city manager.

Williams has mostly worked in Georgia at the county level, including serving as county manager in Fulton County and chief operating officer in DeKalb County.

Tolbert began working for the city in 1998, first as the city manager’s assistant and later in the aviation department. Broadnax hired her as his chief of staff in 2017.

Unlike the Mayor and the Dallas City Council, the city manager position in Dallas is not elected but is instead appointed by the city council, and is tasked with executing policies, overseeing the annual budget, and managing staff at city hall.

The council’s Ad Hoc Committee will choose finalists, introduce them to the public, and make an offer in early 2025.

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