Only four other metropolitan areas in the United States have bigger gender-based wage gaps than St. Louis.
That's according to rankings out from the National Partnership for Women & Families.
Here's how wages between men and women in the "top 5" metropolitan areas in the rankings shake out:
1. Seattle: $0.27 wage gap
2. Pittsburgh: $0.27 wage gap
3. Buffalo: $0.27 wage gap
4. Detroit: $0.26 wage gap
5. St. Louis: $0.25 wage gap
For comparison here's how a few other Midwestern metropolitan areas ranked:
10. Indianapolis: $0.24 wage gap
12. Oklahoma City: $0.23 wage gap
13. Cleveland: $0.23 wage gap
14. Kansas City: $0.23 wage gap
22. Cincinnati: $0.21 wage gap
27. Chicago: $0.20 wage gap
Beyond the rankings, what impact does this have on women in the St. Louis region? What does a $0.25 difference mean?
The rankings cite data from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and AAA. Based on those numbers, NPWF highlighted the following information on their St. Louis fact sheet:
In the St. Louis metro area, on average, a woman who holds a full-time job is paid $38,123per year while a man who holds a full-time job is paid $50,710 per year. This means that women in the St. Louis area are paid 75 cents for every dollar paid to men in the area, amounting to a yearly gap of $12,587 between men and women who work full time.
And on an "everyday expenses" level, NPWF says that if the gap were eliminated, working women in the St. Louis area would have enough money for:
105 more weeks of food (two years' worth); Nine more months of mortgage and utilities payments; 16 more months of rent; or 3,652 additional gallons of gas.
In the rankings' state-by-state comparisons, Missouri ranks in the middle at #24 ($0.22 wage gap) while Illinois sits at #16 ($0.23 wage gap).
Follow Kelsey Proud on Twitter: @KelseyProud
