Analysis shows pay gap between Virginia men and women

A new analysis shows that women employed full time in Virginia are paid 78 cents for every dollar paid to men, amounting to a yearly gap in wages of $11,836.

Collectively, this amounts to a loss of more than $14.8 billion in income every year according to a study by the National Partnership for Women & Families, based on U.S. Census Bureau data. The study notes that the money could strengthen the state economy by providing support to the more than 365,000 Virginia households headed by women.

According to the analysis, if the gap between men’s and women’s wages in Virginia were eliminated, each full-time woman could afford to pay for food for nearly two more years, buy 3,300-plus more gallons of gasoline, pay mortgage and utilities for seven more months or pay rent for 11 more months.

“This new analysis illustrates the great harm to families, states and metropolitan areas caused by the pervasive gender-based wage gap,” Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families, said in a statement. “With most women serving as essential breadwinners for their families, the loss of this critical income has devastating consequences. Local, state and federal lawmakers should make ending gender discrimination in pay and promotions a much higher priority.”

Nationally, women who hold full-time jobs are paid 77 cents for every dollar paid to men who hold full-time jobs. African-American women and Latinas fare worse, being paid 64 cents and just 55 cents, respectively, for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.

According to the National Partnership, a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group, the wage gap has been closing at a rate of less than half a cent per year since passage of the Equal Pay Act in 1963. At this rate, the group said women would not be paid equally for more than 40 years.

The analysis in the report uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau and spans all 50 states and the country’s 50 largest metropolitan areas. Reports for each locality, along with state rankings, are available at www.NationalPartnership.org/Gap.