Utah nation's worst in gender gap for high-income earners

Brice Wallace 

Several studies over the years have shown Utah women earn less than Utah men. A new study shows that is especially true when it comes to high-income earners.

In fact, the gap is larger in Utah than any other state.

A study by MagnifyMoney shows that 85 percent of the state’s workers earning six-figure pay are men — the highest level in the U.S. — while 15 percent are women. In contrast, the lowest disparity is in the District of Columbia, where 57 percent of six-figure earners are men, compared with 43 percent who are women.{mprestriction ids="1,3"}

Nationally, 72 percent of those earning six figures or more are men. Put another way, for every woman who makes at least $100,000, 2.5 men do.

Every state has a higher percentage of male high-pay earners than female. The situation is is reversed among low-pay earners. Nationally, 57.1 percent of workers who earn less than $25,000 are women. Utah is ranked No. 22 for that gender pay gap, with 58.3 percent of low-income earners being women. Louisiana has 60.4 percent — the highest percentage gap — while Alaska has a U.S. low of 54 percent.

Forty percent of female workers make less than $25,000, compared with 27 percent of male workers.

“Women are always playing catch-up,” said Ismat Mangla, executive editor at MagnifyMoney. “They bear the brunt of low-wage jobs, and those low wages translate to a lifetime of being behind when it comes to building financial security.”

The MagnifyMoney study also reveals that nationally the higher the income, the higher the percentage of men. Among people earning at least $100,000, 72 percent are men. Among those earning between $150,000 and $200,000, 73 percent are men. Among those earning $200,000 or more, 78 percent are men — there are 3.6 men for every woman who makes at least that amount.

“The highest earners in our society are men, which means that they are able to build wealth for the long haul,” Mangla said. Men tend to have more money saved, in large part due to the gender pay gap.

Looking at the statistics a different way, 16 percent of male workers earn at least six figures, compared with 7 percent of female workers. Four percent of men make above $200,000, compared with 1 percent of women.

Utah neighbors also don’t fare well for having gaps among workers earning $100,000 or more. Wyoming has the No. 2 highest gap, with 83 percent of higher earners being men. Idaho is No. 4, with 81 percent.

In a report releasing the results of the study, Mangla said that raising the minimum wage and instituting pay transparency “could go a long way toward leveling the playing field” among men and women.

“The problems are structural, but it always makes sense for women to do their research on compensation in their field so they can be armed with information when it comes to negotiating,” she said.

But she added that negotiating for a fairer wage can sometimes backfire. “Women are often penalized for trying to secure higher wages, so they should be aware of this before negotiating,” she said.

MagnifyMoney and its parent company, LendingTree, provide consumers with free financial information, tools and calculators. Its gender-pay report is available at https://www.magnifymoney.com/blog/news/gender-pay-gap-study/.

Among similar gender-pay reports in recent years is one from the National Partnership for Women & Families, which used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It showed that Utah had the widest pay gap in the nation in 2020, with women earning 72.7 cents per dollar of men’s earnings. Connecticut had the smallest, with women earning 97 cents to every men’s dollar.

Using 2019 figures calculated by National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), the Utah Women & Leadership Project said in March 2021 that Utah women earn about 70 percent of what men earn — a percentage that had not changed since a 2017 report. The national perspective showed that women earned about 82 percent of what mean earn.

WalletHub has ranked Utah as the worst state for overall women’s equality for four consecutive years. Its most recent report used 17 metrics and found that Utah women’s median weekly earnings are 25 percent less than men’s, that annual earnings for women average $39,784 while men get about $57,000, women are nearly twice as likely than men to earn at or near the minimum wage, that the pay disparity is strong at high-income levels, a higher level of Utah non-elderly women live at or below the poverty line than men, and women are less likely to hold executive-level positions.{/mprestriction}