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Millennials and Gen Z are working to close the gender pay gap one city at a time.
A recent Pew Research study found that young women earn as much or more than their young male co-workers in 22 cities across the country, according to US Census Bureau data.
New York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles are all on the list with career-driven young women flocking to the major metropolitan areas to pursue their dreams as all good rom-coms suggest.
In both the New York and DC areas, young women earn 102% of what their male counterparts bring home, while pay in Los Angeles appears to be equal.
The statistics from these major cities come as a welcome but less shocking discovery compared with some of the smaller cities and rural areas that came out on top of the 250 cities that were surveyed.
The study listed Wenatchee, Washington, Morgantown, West Virginia, and Barnstable, Massachusetts, as the top three cities where young women are out-earning men by 120%, 114% and 112%, respectively.
About 16% of all women under 30 who are working full-time year-round live in the 22 cities where women have closed or surpassed the gender pay gap.
Close behind the top 22 cities, there are 107 metro areas where young women earn between 90% and 99% of what young men earn and where nearly half of young women working full-time year-round lived in 2019.
With those statistics, women under 30 are closing the gender pay gap for their age. In 2000, 16- to 29-year-old women working year-round and full-time were making 88 cents on the dollar compared with men but, in 2019, women under 30 were making 93 cents on the dollar.
“There’s progress but it’s not across the board,” Kathy Caprino, a women’s career and leadership coach and author, told The Post. “We’re not anywhere where we need to be.”
Despite the long road ahead to close the gender pay gap nationwide, Caprino is excited to see the progress that working women are making.
She attributed this positive trend to increased higher education for women and stricter policy and laws for pay equity protocol and transparency in metro areas.
In the latest legislative push, employers in New York City will be required to disclose salary ranges on job listings beginning May 15.
“There’s a greater awareness of these disparities and how they simply cannot stand,” Caprino explained. “They’re not ethical, legal or fair.”
Dr. Adrienne Partridge, a leadership and career coach, told The Post that these “positive” changes have “everything to do with the structures that are in place.” She noted that most of these metropolitan cities are home to big companies that are required to ensure pay equity for legal and competitive reasons.
Women today are also more likely than men to be enrolled in college and graduate college with a four-year degree bettering their chances of earning a competitive salary.
The gender pay gap has always been the narrowest for young women compared with women later in their careers — and especially women who have children — but women under 30 today are making extraordinary strides in equality.
“Millennials and Gen Z folks are clearer about what they want and what they won’t tolerate,” Caprino noted.
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