PR women out-earn men, again

Women continue to earn more than men in Puerto Rico, where a wage-gap reversal has put the island in a unique position in the U.S., according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

The numbers released this week show that women workers on the island earn an average of $22,973 per year. That was $802, or roughly 3.5 percent, higher than the average for men.

That means the average earnings for women in Puerto Rico are 103.6 percent of the average earnings for men in the U.S. territory.

The University of Puerto Rico’s Census Information Center and local media outlets seized on the report, based on 2013 American Community Survey, as a historic shift in the gender income gap.

However, as CARIBBEAN BUSINESS online reported in 2010, the average annual earnings for women in Puerto Rico pulled in front of men for the first time in the 2008 American Community Survey.

Puerto Rico is the only U.S. state or territory where women earn more than men, according to the newly released Census Bureau data.

Nationally, in 2013 the median earnings of women who worked full time, year-round ($39,157) was 78 percent of that for men working full time, year-round ($50,033) ─ not statistically different from the 2012 ratio. The national female-to-male earnings ratio has not experienced a statistically significant annual increase since 2007, according to the Census Bureau.

Louisiana posted the nation’s largest gender pay gap, with women paid about two-thirds of what men are paid. Rounding out the bottom fiver were: Wyoming (69 percent); West Virginia (69 percent) Utah (70 percent) and North Dakota (70 percent).

The District of Columbia had both the narrowest gender gap — women’s pay averaged 91 percent of men’s — and the highest average pay at $67,610 for men and $61,760 for women.

It was followed by New York (86 percent), Maryland at (85 percent), and Florida, California and Arizona (84 percent).

Courtesy of Caribbean Business