Start Spreading the News: Young Women in New York Make More Than Men

While young women in the U.S. earn less than men, in New York and a few other large cities women in their 20s working full time are pulling down more money than the guys. The New York Times today (registration required) reports on an analysis by Queens College demographer Andrew Beveridge that shows as of 2005, women age 21-30 working full time in New York earned 17% more than their male counterparts: $35,653 for women and $30,560 for men. For the United States overall, men in this age group earn $28,523 compared to $25,467 for women.

And New York is not alone. In Dallas, Boston, Minneapolis, and Chicago young women also earned more than men. In Dallas, the gap was even larger than New York, with a 20% difference in earnings.

The article offers several reasons for the disparities. Diana Rhoten of the Social Science Research Council says big cities offer more professional opportunities and less gender discrimination than smaller cities. Andrew Hacker, a sociologist at Queens College says that women in cities are less likely to be married or have children, which lets them devote more time to their careers. Other data suggest that education levels are playing a role. In 2005, says the article, a majority (53%) of New York women in their 20s had a college education, compared to 38% for men.

While income gains made by women may be due to more advancement and opportunities, Beveridge's study also suggests that men's earnings may be going in reverse.  Since 1970, real wages adjusted for inflation have declined for all men nationwide. For men in New York with bachelors degrees or higher, incomes have barely kept pace with inflation while they have soared for women.