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