Where women are best paid

last updated 8 January 2015

Women “now hold down the majority of jobs in the U.S. workforce,” said Richard Florida in TheAtlanticâ€‹.com. But where a woman works makes a huge difference to the size of her paycheck. Washington, D.C., is the clear national winner: Women there earn the most—$53,450 on average, $10,000 more than in runner-up Maryland. The capital also has a high “location premium”—the amount a professional woman earns above the national average for her peers. D.C.’s premium is $13,465, followed by those of New Mexico ($7,913), Connecticut ($7,121), Maryland ($6,728), and California ($6,119). Skilled women’s location penalties are highest in Virginia (-$6,948), South Dakota (-$7,248), North Dakota (-$7,334), and Montana (-$7,871). Those variances don’t change the fact that “men remain the winners by a large margin” on earnings.