Report: For Seattle women, education doesn't pay

The gender pay gap isn't getting better in Seattle for educated women, a study from LiveStories found. And despite the progressive attitude the Emerald City advertises, it ranks far down the list for its pay gap. We included the top and bottom 10 from the ranking of 50 cities included in the LiveStories study, as ranked by overall pay gaps (for all education levels) in 2015. The figures are rounded for ease of reading. We'll start with Seattle and then head into the bottom 10 (as in the cities with the largest gender pay gap). 38. Seattle Women earn $0.78 for every $1 men earn — **The gender pay gap** isn't getting better in Seattle for educated women, a study from LiveStories found. And despite the progressive attitude the Emerald City advertises, it ranks far down the list for its pay gap. We included the top and bottom 10 from the ranking of 50 cities included in the LiveStories study, as ranked by overall pay gaps (for all education levels) in 2015. The figures are rounded for ease of reading. We'll start with Seattle and then head into the bottom 10 (as in the cities with the largest gender pay gap).

**38. Seattle**
**Women earn $0.78 for every $1 men earn**
GRANT HINDSLEY/SEATTLEPI.COM

Seattle women are not being paid the same as men, and for those who get more education, the gap only widens.

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That's a according to a new report by LiveStories that analyzed U.S. Census American Community Survey figures from 2010 to 2015 for 50 U.S. cities.

Overall, Seattle women 25 and older earn about $0.78 to a man's $1. The median income for Seattle men in 2015 was $54,452, while women's median income was $42,238.

That number is better than the statewide figure of $0.66 on the $1, and the national figure of $0.73 to a man's $1.

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"But it is still a big gap for a large, liberal American city that prides itself on ideals of equality," the report read. "Seattle's gap is significantly wider than American cities with the closest total populations — Denver, Boston, Baltimore, and Nashville."

What's worse is that, as Seattleites get more educated, the gender pay gap gets larger.

For those with graduate or professional degrees, women earn just $0.66 to men's $1, a figure lower than the U.S. average of $0.67, according to the report.

LiveStories points to the tech industry -- the driving force of Seattle's economy and a sector notorious for issues of inequality and discrimination against women in particular -- as the cause of the widening pay gap in the Emerald City.

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"Tech is a huge part of Seattle's economy, and as such, this data shows how much further this industry has to go toward equitable hiring practices," the report read.

Among the similarly sized cities previously mentioned -- Denver, Boston, Baltimore and Nashville, -- Seattle is unique in both how wide the gap is for higher educated people, and the change between levels.

At the high school education level, women earn $0.86 to men's $1 in Seattle -- the closest to parity that it gets. Move up to those with bachelor's degrees, and that gap widens to $0.72 to men's $1, a more than $0.10 difference. Continue to graduate and professional degrees, and the difference is $0.20 from high school educated people.

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But in Boston, for example, the largest difference is roughly $0.09.

The gap didn't improve between 2010 and 2015, either.

In 2010, women with graduate or professional degrees in Seattle earned $0.69 to men's $1 -- still a large gap. But that gap widened over the ensuing five years, shaving roughly $0.03 off women's earnings compared to men's.

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Daniel DeMay covers Seattle culture, city hall, and transportation for seattlepi.com. He can be reached at 206-448-8362 or danieldemay@seattlepi.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Daniel_DeMay.