TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Women in the Tampa Bay are are only making a fraction of the money that their male counterparts make, according to a new study.
The gender pay gap has decreased steadily since 1979, when women made 62 percent of their male counterparts’ income, to just above 80 percent now, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Self Financial analyzed the most recent data on income from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey.
Researchers then ranked metro areas according to the ratio of full-time working women’s earnings to full-time working men’s earnings. Metros with bigger gender pay gaps have lower ratios of women’s earnings to men’s earnings.
In the Tampa Bay area, full-time women are making just over 85 percent of what their male counterparts are making, exceeding the national average with women’s median annual earnings $41,205 to a full-time working man’s $48,242.
The Tampa Bay metro area ranked No. 40 nationally for its above-average pay rate between women and men.
Across Tampa, Clearwater and St. Petersburg, industries with the largest gender pay gaps were professional, scientific and technical services.
Legal careers had the largest occupational wage gaps, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In the Lakeland and Winter Haven areas, women are only making 79.5 percent of what men are making for the same work— with the largest gender wage gap in construction work.
Among the largest gender pay gaps in 8 On Your Side’s 10 counties is the North Port, Sarasota and Bradenton metro area, where female employees are making just 76 percent of what male employees in the same job are making.