This is particularly true for the District of Columbia, Arizona, California, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia. Women who work full-time are paid the least, compared with men, in Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming, where women earn less than 70 percent of men's weekly earnings. Women of color fare especially poorly in Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming, earning less than 60 percent of what men earn. For women of color, the gender pay gap is smallest in the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Florida, New York and Tennessee, where they earn more than 70 percent of what men overall in those states earn. Too As the percentage of women in an occupation rises, wages tend to fall.
Unions also help close the wage gaps based on gender and minority status for their members.
Women represented by unions earn almost 84 percent as much as union men, while unionized workers of color make about 81 percent as much as unionized white workers. In the 35 years since the equal employment laws passed, women and people of color have made significant strides into the mainstream of the American workplace. But lingering unequal pay robs women and their families of economic security, doubling poverty rates for today's workers and threatening reduced retirement income and greater poverty tomorrow.