10 cities where the gender wage gap is closing

The persisting issue of the gender pay gap is a source of frustration for women across the workforce. But as a silver lining, there are certain cities making significant strides in making workplaces more equitable. 

According to a new Pew Research Center analysis of the median hourly earnings of both full and part-time workers, women still earned an average of 82% of what men earned in 2022. In an effort to find where equity efforts are making real change, fintech company SmartAsset analyzed data for the 200 largest U.S. cities to find where the wage gap has shrunk the most over time. 

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"Southern cities have the largest presence in the top 10 with seven areas making the cut," says Susannah Snider, managing editor for financial education at SmartAsset. "In comparison, no Midwestern or Northeastern Cities made the top 10. Of course, each community has its own unique forces shaping the local economy, particularly for women, but the cities in the top of the rankings provide a bright contrast to the bleak nationwide statistics." 

Hollywood, Florida came in first place with the largest wage gap change studywide. Between 2017 and 2021, the wage gap in Hollywood narrowed by 26.53%. Oceanside, California and Birmingham, Alabama came close behind with a decrease of 23.22% and 19.17%, respectively. Comparatively, the national average narrowed by a mere 0.69% over the same time period. The study also found that in some of the largest U.S. cities, the wage gap was actually widening — for example, in San Antonio, Texas, women went from earning 91 cents for every dollar earned by a man to 82 cents. 

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Fortunately, the list also includes three cities where women earn more than men. In Hollywood, Florida, women earn roughly $2,155 more than men annually, followed by Oakland, California and Springfield, Massachusetts, where women earn $1,922 and $969 more than men, respectively. 

SmartAsset ranked the cities across four metrics: the overall wage gap in each individual state, the gross difference in women's and men's earnings, how much or how little the wage gap had changed over a four year period and whether women's earnings rose or fell in a four-year time period. See which where each city fell on the list: