Young Women Make More Than Men in Big Cities

Young women in New York and several of the nation’s other largest cities who work full time have forged ahead of men in wages, according to an analysis of recent census data.

Women in their 20s also make more than men in Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis and a few other big cities.

Women of all educational levels from 21 to 30 living in New York City and working full time made 117 percent of men’s wages, and even more in Dallas, 120 percent. Nationwide, that group of women made much less: 89 percent of the average full-time pay for men.

So, the ladies have overtaken the men in salaries in NYC. How long has this been going on for?

In 1970, all New York women in their 20s made $7,000 less than men, on average, adjusted for inflation. By 2000, they were about even. In 2005, according to an analysis of the latest census results they were making about $5,000 more: a median wage of $35,653, or 117 percent of the $30,560 reported by men in that age group.

The shift has occurred in New York since 2000 and even earlier in Los Angeles, Dallas and a few other cities.

What explains the change?

But a major reason, experts say, is that women have been graduating from college in larger numbers than men, and that many of those women seem to be gravitating toward major urban areas.

In 2005, 53 percent of women in their 20s working in New York were college graduates, compared with only 38 percent of men of that age.

The article also has a graph of the breakdown of wages by sex and race, but I wasn't able to reconcile the wages by race with the total for all races (using this Census data), so I think there is probably an error with their calculations and am leery of drawing anything from it.

via NY Times