The 2005 Census figures show that women earned less than men in every state and region last year. The earnings gap was at its narrowest in Washington, D.C., where women earned 91 cents for every dollar that men earned.
Women working in finance and insurance earned about 55% of what men in that industry earned last year. The gap in earnings between women and men in the finance and insurance sector was the widest gap of any sector.
The earnings data were broken out not only among 20 broad industry sectors but also among 22 major occupational groups. Within "legal occupations," men had a median income of $102,272, but women earned slightly less than half that amount, making law the field with the widest income disparity between men and women.
Full-time male lawyers were paid a median weekly salary of $1,748 last year, according to the Labor Department. Their female counterparts made $1,354.
Overall, men had inflation-adjusted median earnings of $41,400 last year, while the typical woman earned $31,900. That put the female-to-male earnings ratio at 77%, flat compared with a few years ago but up from 60% or so in 1980.
* Source: Census Report 2005