BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – A new study reports that women in Baton Rouge make less than the national median.
The report, conducted by Smartest Dollar, said that out of 350 metro cities, Baton Rouge ranked 226. The national annual wage median for women who work full-time is $49,263. In Baton Rouge, the annual wage median for women who work full-time is $42,039.
Why are women earning less in Baton Rouge than other cities?
“There are many different factors that can contribute to geographical differences in wages for women, but one major factor may be job opportunities,” said Smartest Dollar CTO Michael Stromberg.
States in the Northeast have to pay higher wages to adjust to the cost of living. Only 41% of women in Baton Rouge work full time, the study said, and the cost of living in the capital city is about 7% under compared to the average cost of living.
“Typically, the cost of living is calculated by measuring the relative cost of goods and services locally as compared to the national average,” Stromberg said.
Baton Rouge has a lower amount of high-wage occupations, according to Stromberg. He compared Baton Rouge to New Haven, Connecticut since both cities have close population numbers.
“The New Haven area has a median annual wage for full-time working women that is 31.5% higher than the Baton Rouge metro area after adjusting for the cost of living, in part because it has a larger share of its employment in high-paying occupations such as healthcare and management,” Stromberg said. “While Baton Rouge has higher concentrations in the sales and food preparations occupation groups, which pay relatively less.”
Smartest Dollar said that out of all 50 states, Louisiana is ranked 46th in the best-paying locations for women.
What are the highest-paying jobs for women in Baton Rouge?
The Baton Rouge Area Chamber Business Intelligence Team said the top occupations for women are management, business, science and art with 90,209 positions in the metro area.
Stromberg said some high-paying occupations, such as being a CEO, pay well for both men and women.
“However, the composition of the employment landscape can have a large effect. For example, Baton Rouge has a higher concentration of cashiers compared to the national average, and that is one of the lower-paying occupations. Meanwhile, Baton Rouge has a lower concentration of registered nurses, which is a high-paying occupation with a large concentration of women.”
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