Exclusive: Philly's gender pay gap narrows, but racial disparities persist
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Philadelphia's gender pay gap is shrinking, but women of color are still earning significantly less than their peers, per a new report from the Forum of Executive Women shared first with Axios.
Why it matters: While women have made gains in the workplace, equity remains elusive.
The big picture: Women in Philadelphia made about 88.8 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2024, up from 85.5 cents in 2015, per the report.
- White women earned 94 cents for every dollar earned by white men, compared with 64 cents for Black women and 57 cents for Latina women.
By the numbers: Because of the gender pay gap, women overall lose roughly $1.7 trillion nationwide in earnings every year.
- That translates into an average of about $500,000 in lost income over the course of a woman's career, per the report.
- Black and Latina women stand to lose $885,000 and $1.2 million, respectively.
Between the lines: Philadelphia's workforce remains highly segregated by industry — a key driver of what the report calls the "Philadelphia Paradox." Women are overrepresented in lower-paying fields such as health care and education and underrepresented in higher-paying sectors like finance and utilities.
- Median earnings in finance are about $91,000, versus roughly $51,000 in health care.
The intrigue: The report found a widening gap among the most highly educated men and women.
- Women with advanced degrees earned about 91 cents for every dollar earned by men, per the report.
What they're saying: Structured pay ranges, regular promotion cycles, and banning employers from asking about salary history have helped narrow some pay disparities, advocates say, by reducing the role of individual salary negotiations, where men are more likely than women to ask for raises.
- Helen Horstmann-Allen, a former business owner and acting executive director of the Merchants Fund, tells Axios she was surprised to discover a gender pay gap after auditing compensation at a company she once ran.
- Both women and men have a role to play in helping address persistent pay gaps facing Black and Latina women, Forum of Executive Women president and CEO Meghan Pierce tells Axios.
"It doesn't require extraordinary action. It can just be small acts of intentional leadership," she says. "Sponsoring women, advocating for women when they're not in the room, recommending them for promotions."
- "And I think this is really important … men can just normalize conversations about caregiving. One of the biggest drivers of long-term earning disparities is the unequal burden of caregiving."