Among the Wealthy, CT’s Gender Pay Gap is 4th Widest in the U.S.

In Connecticut, among the top 2 percent of wage earners, men earn an average of $658,000 while women earn an average of $214,000, a gap of $444,000.  That’s 67 percent less earned by women in the top 2 percent.  It is the fourth largest wage gap in the nation, comparing people earning in the top 2 percent in all 50 states. The data, compiled by the website howmuch.net, used information from the United States Joint Economic Committee.  The analysis indicates that the pay gap is “enormous everywhere you look. There isn’t a single place in the country where it doesn’t exist. The best state for pay equality is Alaska, but even there, women make 25% less than men.”

The largest pay gap between wealthy men and women is in Wyoming, at 71 percent, followed by Nebraska (68.7%), Oklahoma (68%), Connecticut (67.4%) and New York (67.3%).

The website indicates that for people earning an average income, the gender pay gap is typically around 20 percent. “For the ultra-rich, however, women make 60-71.76% less than men in a whopping 37 different states.”

In 1963, only 44 percent of prime working-age women (ages 25 to 54) were in the labor force. Around that time, women held fewer than one in three jobs. Today, about 75 percent of prime working-age women are in the labor force and women hold almost half (49 percent) of all jobs, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Connecticut’s average for men in the top 2 percent of wage earners - $658,000 – was the highest in the country, just ahead of Washington, DC ($637,000), New York ($613,000) and New Jersey ($555,000). Massachusetts was next, at $551,000.

For women in the top 2 percent, Washington, D.C. topped the list at $280,000, followed next by Connecticut at $214,000, and New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and California at $200,000.

The website analysis concludes that the pay gap “gets worse the richer you are."