Where a woman works still changes what she earns. In 2024 the typical woman working full time, year round was paid 81 cents for every dollar paid to a man, the widest that gap has been in years.
Across the largest U.S. cities it ranges from a 33% gap to a handful of places where women out-earn men outright.
We ranked the cities using the newest government earnings data and two national workforce studies, then checked every city against the others so a high salary does not hide a wide pay gap. The numbers are dated, the sources are listed at the end, and we refresh the page every year.
Women in the workforce, 2026
The four numbers that frame the rankings
Jobs held
More than men
Women now hold more payroll jobs than men
Pay ratio
81 cents
What women earn per dollar men earn, full time
Best city overall
Columbia, MD
Highest women's earnings after cost of living
Fastest improving
Knoxville, TN
Biggest recent gains for working women
Why you can trust this: verified September 2026, built from Census earnings data and two national studies listed at the bottom of the page, and no city paid to be here. Two kinds of cities made the list, the ones where women earn the most today and the ones improving fastest, and we flag the ones where a big salary hides a wide pay gap.
How We Ranked These Cities
We looked at three things for every large U.S. city. First, how women are doing today: what they earn after cost of living, how many are unemployed or in poverty, how many own businesses, and how healthy and safe the city is for them.
Second, how fast things are improving: whether women's pay, participation and share of management jobs have been rising. Third, the pay gap itself, the difference between what men and women earn for full time work, taken straight from Census data.
A city made the top ten only if it scored near the top on the first or second measure and the pay gap did not contradict it.
That rule knocked out two famous cities, Seattle and Fremont, which pay well but carry two of the ten widest pay gaps in the country. They are covered further down so you can judge them yourself.
The 10 Best Cities for Women in the Workforce
1. Columbia, Maryland
Highest women's earningsWomen in Columbia earn more than women in any other U.S. city once cost of living is factored in, a median of $61,778, roughly three times the lowest city measured. It is the top city overall on every measure of how women are doing today. A planned community between Baltimore and Washington, it pairs capital region salaries with suburban housing costs.
2. Knoxville, Tennessee
Fastest improvingNo large metro improved faster for working women. Women's workforce participation, share of management jobs, median income, the pay gap and unemployment all moved the right way at once, the strongest combined gain of the 100 largest metros. If you want a city where the trend is running in your favor rather than one that already peaked, this is the data's pick.
3. Overland Park, Kansas
Best for health and stabilityThe largest suburb of Kansas City ranks third in the country for how women are doing today, carried by health and safety: it is among the best cities for women's life expectancy and insurance coverage, with solid earnings on top. It is the highest ranked city on the list that most people have never considered.
4. Portland, Maine
Fast pay and promotion gainsPortland posted some of the fastest gains anywhere in women's salaries and in women holding management roles, second only to Knoxville among large metros. It is a small metro, so those gains show up quickly in the data, and a small professional community is also easier to break into.
5. Raleigh, North Carolina
Best all-aroundRaleigh is the one city that holds up on every measure. It ranks fourth in the country for how women are doing today, neighboring Durham ranks ninth, and its full time pay gap of $11,682 sits right at the national figure of $11,287 rather than the $25,000 to $40,000 gaps of other tech hubs. High marks with nothing arguing the other way is why it is the safest bet on this list.
6. North Port, Sarasota and Bradenton, Florida
Gulf Coast momentumFlorida holds three of the five fastest improving metros for working women, and this Gulf Coast metro is the highest of them, with gains in participation, pay and management roles in a region whose population growth has been pulling employers with it. If you are weighing the state, our business ideas in Florida guide covers the local economy.
7. South Burlington, Vermont
Lowest uninsured rateSouth Burlington ranks fifth in the country for how women are doing today and has the lowest share of uninsured women of any city measured, an 18 fold difference between it and the worst city. It is a health and stability pick more than an earnings pick, which matters if coverage weighs more for you than raw salary.
8. Lakeland and Winter Haven, Florida
Affordable and improvingThe second Florida metro among the fastest improvers sits between Tampa and Orlando, with the same pattern of gains in women's participation, pay and management roles. Lower housing costs than either neighbor make the pay gains go further.
9. Virginia Beach, Virginia
Most women-owned businessesVirginia Beach ranks seventh in the country for how women are doing today and ties with Norfolk, Chesapeake and Newport News for the highest share of women-owned businesses anywhere in the country. If your plan is to run something rather than join something, this is where the data says women already do. Our small business ideas for women list is the companion to this one.
10. Jacksonville, Florida
Big metro, strong gainsJacksonville is the largest of the fastest improving metros and the third Florida entry. As with the others, it earns its spot on how much conditions for working women improved, not on where they stand today, so check the pay gap in your own occupation before moving.
Also strong in 2026
Just outside the ten: Minneapolis, Durham and Jersey City on how women are doing today, and Charleston, Spokane, Chattanooga and Indianapolis on how fast they are improving. Any of them would have made a list built on a single measure.
Three Cities That Look Better Than They Are
Seattle, Washington
Wide pay gapSeattle ranks second in the country for how women are doing today, with a 3.5% uninsured rate for women and strong health marks. It also has the sixth widest gender pay gap of the 170 largest cities: women working full time earn $29,124 less than men, a 24% gap. High earnings and a wide gap can both be true. Decide which one you are optimizing for.
Fremont, California
Widest pay gap in the countryFremont ranks sixth for how women are doing today and has the single widest gender pay gap of any large city: $41,553 a year, or 33%. Its high ranking is carried by earnings that are high for everyone and by health measures. For a woman comparing her offer to a man's in the same Bay Area market, it is the worst city on the list.
Jackson, Mississippi
Improving from the bottomJackson is the tenth fastest improving metro for working women, and also dead last of 182 cities for how women are doing today. Both are true. Conditions improved quickly from the lowest base in the country, and you live at the level, not the trend.
The Cities Where Women Out-Earn Men
In only four of the 170 largest U.S. cities do women working full time, year round earn more than men. The margins are small, and they are the exception that shows how wide the national gap is.
- Glendale, California: women earn $8,452 more than men
- Oakland, California: $4,500 more
- Yonkers, New York: $1,722 more
- Fayetteville, North Carolina: $388 more
At the other end, the widest gaps cluster in wealthy tech and finance suburbs where men's salaries run far ahead.
Fremont leads at $41,553, then Frisco, Texas ($41,037), Cary, North Carolina ($35,717), McKinney, Texas ($30,084) and Plano, Texas ($29,587), followed by Seattle, San Francisco, Scottsdale, Irvine and Huntsville.
Women in the Workforce in 2026: The National Picture
The rankings sit on top of a national story with two sides. Participation has never been stronger.
Early in 2026 women held slightly more payroll jobs than men for the first time, closing a gap that stood at nearly 7 million jobs in 1990, and the gap between men's and women's labor force participation hit a record low of 10 percentage points in February 2026.
Women aged 25 to 54 reached a record 78.4% participation in 2024. Health care, education and hospitality drove the hiring, and those fields skew female.
Pay went the other way. Women working full time, year round earned 80.9 cents for every dollar men earned in 2024, down from 82.7 cents in 2023, the second straight yearly decline.
Men's median earnings rose 3.7% that year and women's did not change. In dollars, that is $13,570 less per year for the typical woman and an estimated $542,000 over a 40 year career.
The gap is far wider for women of color. Black women working full time, year round are paid 65 cents for every dollar paid to white, non Hispanic men, down from 66 cents the year before.
Latinas are paid 58 cents. That translates to $28,340 a year for Black women and $33,620 for Latinas, which is why the city level differences above matter more for some women than others.
For the broader trends shaping where the jobs are, see our guide to workforce trends.
How to Weigh a City for Yourself
No ranking knows your occupation, and the pay gap varies more by job than by city. Four checks do most of the work.
Check earnings after cost of living
Not beforeOur ranking adjusts women's earnings for cost of living, which is why Columbia, Maryland beats cities with bigger paychecks on paper. A $90,000 offer in Fremont buys less than a $70,000 one in Raleigh. Run the comparison on the take home number.
Check the gap in your occupation, not the city average
Occupation firstA city with a narrow overall gap can still have a wide one in engineering or finance. Look up the figure for your occupation in your metro before you weigh the city figure, and then negotiate on it. Our guides on salary negotiation skills and how to get a raise are written for exactly that conversation.
Decide whether the city even needs to matter
Remote changes the mathIf your role can be remote, you can take a coastal salary to a fast improving city with lower housing costs and skip the relocation gamble entirely. FlexJobs screens listings for legitimate remote and flexible roles; our FlexJobs review covers what the subscription gets you, and our work from home jobs guide lists the fields hiring remotely.
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Look at who else is building there
Women-owned shareThe share of women-owned businesses is a signal of networks, mentors and customers who look like you. Virginia Beach and its neighbors lead the country on that measure. If you are leaning that way, start with work from home jobs for women and our career advice for women.
And if the move itself is the hard part, our guides to moving on a budget and the best cities for millennials cover the practical side, while high paying jobs that do not require a degree is the list to read if the credential is what is holding your offer down.
Best Cities for Women: The Bottom Line
If you want the safest single answer, it is Raleigh: near the top on every measure, close to the national average on the pay gap, and nothing arguing the other way. If you want the strongest current conditions, Columbia, Maryland.
If you want the fastest improving market, Knoxville. And if you are choosing between Seattle or Fremont and one of those three, know that you would be trading a wider pay gap for a higher headline salary.
We update this page every September, when the new Census earnings data and city rankings arrive.
Sources
- WalletHub, Best and Worst Cities for Women (2026), 182 cities, 15 metrics, published September 22, 2025.
- Checkr, 2026\'s Best Cities for Women in the Workforce, 100 largest metros, Census Bureau data, published March 26, 2026.
- Business.com, U.S. Cities With the Largest Gender Pay Gaps in 2026, 2024 American Community Survey microdata, 170 cities, published February 23, 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Income in the United States: 2024, released September 9, 2025.
- National Women\'s Law Center, What\'s Behind the Full-Time, Year-Round Gender Wage Gap Calculation?, fact sheet, January 2026.
- Indeed Hiring Lab, How Women Have Closed the Other Workforce Gender Gap, March 26, 2026, on BLS payroll and participation data.
