Top 10 Cities for women to earn the most

The More You Know

Women Earn The Most Money In This City

9:45 am, February 5th | by Meredith Lepore

Today Forbes came out with a very useful list (not that knowing Taylor Swift’s net worth isn’t useful but…actually, it’s really not) ranking the cities where women earn the most. Considering that women are still making 77 cents for every dollar that men make and with the gap looming even larger for African American and Latino women, this is pretty handy. So where do women earn the most? Our nation’s capital, Washington D.C.

To compile the list Forbes looked at the 2011 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census (the latest data available), supplied by NerdWallet. The annual dataset tracks the median earnings of men and women working full-time, year-around in over 500 major metropolitan areas in the country.

Here are the top 10 but you can see the full list here:

1) Washington, D.C. Metro Area

Women’s median salary: $57,128

Women’s income as a percentage of men’s: 81%

2) San Jose, CA Metro Area

Women’s median salary: $56,499
Women’s income as a percentage of men’s: 75%

3) Bridgeport, CT Metro Area

Women’s median salary: $54,844
Women’s income as a percentage of men’s: 73%

4) San Francisco, CA Metro Area

Women’s median salary: $54,376
Women’s income as a percentage of men’s: 84%

5) Trenton, NJ Metro Area

Women’s median salary: $52,319
Women’s income as a percentage of men’s: 81%

6) Torrington, CT Micro Area

Women’s median salary: $50,200
Women’s income as a percentage of men’s: 82%

7) Boston, MA Metro Area

Women’s median salary: $50,020
Women’s income as a percentage of men’s: 77%

8) Hartford, CT Metro Area

Women’s median salary: $49,891
Women’s income as a percentage of men’s: 81%

9) Boulder, CO Metro Area

Women’s median salary: $49,691
Women’s income as a percentage of men’s: 75%

10) Napa, CA Metro Area

Women’s median salary: $48,985
Women’s income as a percentage of men’s: 94%

If you live in any of these cities already, then good for you!

It is interesting that D.C. came out on top. The city has always been known for its opportunity for women and high salaries but things may not be as peachy keen as they sound. Elspeth Reeve and Rebecca Greenfield of The Atlantic wrote that “Washington is a terrible place that can barely sustain human life, but it’s particularly terrible for female human life.” Yes, there is less pressure to be stylish than for women in New York (which came in at number 14, by the way) but there is a different kind of dress code. Women are expected to look very serious. Reeve pointed out that former White House social secretary Desiree Rogers was criticized for looking too fancy at a state dinner.

According to Reeve, though the ”lipstick-and-skirt dress code” ended in 2002, there had been an informal dispute that summer over open-toed shoes, and women are still required to wear jackets over their blouses to be allowed on the Senate floor. Pantyhose are still an absolute must, even for Hillary Clinton (she got ridiculed for wearing a pantsuit to her swearing in ceremony.)

There are also problems with the social scene. Young working women will forever be under the Monica Lewinsky shadow. And let’s not forget about theObama White House fielding accusations of being a hostile place for women to work. Maybe we’ll call and cancel that moving truck.

TAGS: fashion | forbes | politics | salary