Employment equality: D.C. ranks highest, West Virginia lowest for women in the workforce

At the beginning of September, the Institute for Women’s Policy Research released a study on how the 50 states (and Washington D.C.) rank as far as women’s equality in employment and wages. This study has been in progress since 1996. Washington D.C. ranked the highest as far as equality between men and women, due to a high percentage of white-collar jobs and government opportunities for women. Close behind were Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey. Meanwhile, the states that are lagging furthest behind when it comes to wage and employment equality are West Virginia, Alabama and Louisiana, along with several other southern states. The study showed that New Mexico has seen the greatest improvement in women’s pay equality since 2006 — when the study’s data was last released — leaping from 44th place to 23rd. The states were given letter grades and ranked based on more than 100 indicators, which included women’s participation in the workforce, the full-time pay ratio between men’s earnings and women’s earnings, median annual income and social factors such as work/family balance, poverty and reproductive rights. For more information about the study, or to see where your state landed, visit the IWPR website. You can also view a state-by-state profile here. Image: IWPR.org]]>