California cities dominate the list of those in the US with the lowest gender pay gap. These are the 10 cities where women earn the most in comparison with men.

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California cities dominate the list of those in the US with the lowest gender pay gap. These are the 10 cities where women earn the most in comparison with men.
Women in the Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Anaheim metro area earn 91% of the amount men earn, per data from GoodHire.D3sign/Getty Images
  • The area around Los Angeles has the smallest gender pay gap, according to a report by GoodHire.
  • Provo-Orem, Utah, has the largest. Women there earn 38% less than men, per data.
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The area around Los Angeles has the smallest gender pay gap, according to GoodHire, a company that provides employment screening and background checks.

Women in the Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Anaheim metro area earn 91% of the amount men earn, per data from the company. In comparison, women living in Provo-Orem, Utah, earn just under two-thirds of the amount men earn.

GoodHire based its rankings on US Census Bureau data for the 100 most populous metro areas in the US, looking at the median annual income for both men and women. It also analyzes how many earned $100,000 or more a year.

Here are the 10 areas with the smallest gender pay gap, per GoodHire's study:

  1. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California – women earn 9% less than men
  2. Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina – women earn 10% less than men
  3. Fresno, California – women earn 11% less than men
  4. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida – women earn 11% less than men
  5. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Florida – women earn 12% less than men
  6. Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nevada – women earn 12% less than men
  7. Winston-Salem, North Carolina – women earn 14% less than men
  8. Springfield, Massachusetts – women earn 14% less than men
  9. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, California– women earn 14% less than men
  10. Albuquerque, New Mexico – women earn 14% less than men

GoodHire also ranked the cities with the biggest gender pay gap:

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  1. Provo-Orem, Utah – women earn 38% less than men
  2. Baton Rouge, Louisiana – women earn 32% less than men
  3. Ogden-Clearfield, Utah – women earn 31% less than men
  4. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California – women earn 28% less than men
  5. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan – women earn 25% less than men
  6. Augusta-Richmond County, Georgia/South Carolina – women earn 25% less than men
  7. Tulsa, Oklahoma – women earn 25% less than men
  8. Salt Lake City, Utah – women earn 25% less than men
  9. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – women earn 25% less than men
  10. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – women earn 25% less than men

Across the US, the gender pay gap shrank slightly in 2020. However, this was largely because of women in low-wage, service-sector jobs leaving the workforce during the pandemic, Luke Pardue, an economist at Gusto, previously told Insider.

On average, across the 100 most populous cities, women earn $44,220 a year, which is 19% less than men, per GoodHire's study. In the first quarter of 2022, women on average earned $937 a week compared with $1,118 for men — around 16% less, per data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

GoodHire's study also found that women living in cities in California and the North-East were most likely to earn $100,000 or more. In San Jose, California, just over a third of women earn $100,000 or more.

San Jose was closely followed by San Francisco. Other cities including New York City, Boston, Massachusetts, and Baltimore, Maryland made up the top 10, per the study, which used data from the US Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the US Department of Commerce.

San Jose also topped the list of cities where women have the highest median annual income. Women in San Jose and San Francisco earn on average just over $70,000 a year, per GoodHire's study.

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