10 Best Paying Cities for Women

In addition, the earnings gap is smaller—in this case, more because there are fewer women in lower-paying occupations. For instance, women make up 54.3 percent of all food preparation and service occupations nationally, but for just 48.9 percent of those in New Haven.

The typical male in the Denver area earns $52,089 a year, and the typical female $45,543 a year—both higher than the national medians. (Photo: AP)

6. Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Colorado

• Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 87.4 percent

• Median earnings for men: $52,089

• Median earnings for women: $45,543

In the Denver area, the relatively small gap between men's and women's pay isn't due to lower overall salaries, but to women being better represented in higher-paying fields. The typical male here earns $52,089 a year, and the typical female $45,543 a year—both higher than the national medians.

Traditionally male professions with good female representations here include architects and engineers (20.8 percent here are women, compared with 15.4 percent nationwide) and life, physical and social scientists (55.4 percent  are women, compared with 46.3 percent nationally).

In the fields of engineering and architecture, females get higher median wages than men, in the Fresno area. (Photo: AP)

5. Fresno, California

• Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 87.8 percent

• Median earnings for men: $40,626

• Median earnings for women: $35,674

Here's one place where women can actually make out, getting a higher salary than their male counterparts—in the fields of engineering or architecture, where females get higher median wages than men, at $86,899 a year versus $73,921.

Perhaps not surprisingly, women make up 22 percent of Fresno's architecture and engineering positions. It may still not be parity, but it's the second highest female representation in the field of any major metro area.

Women in arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations in L.A. trail men in these fields. (Photo: ThinkStock)

4. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California

• Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 89.9 percent

• Median earnings for men: $45,733

• Median earnings for women: $41,127

Both high- and low-paying occupations offer better opportunities for women to close the gender pay gap in this area, although—interestingly—not among Hollywood actors. While women life, physical, or social scientists in Los Angeles make as much as male counterparts, and even more than women scientists nationally, community and social service occupations, as well as office and administrative support jobs, also provide them with higher pay than they'd get in other areas.

Actors? Not so much. Women in arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations in L.A. trail men in these fields; the gap nationally is 86 percent, but here it's substantially bigger: 78 percent.

Women can do better here in the Daytona Beach area, with a smaller pay gap, but it depends on the profession. (Photo: ThinkStock)

3. Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, Florida

• Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 90.2 percent

• Median earnings for men: $35,989

• Median earnings for women: $32,458

Women can do better here, with a smaller pay gap, but it depends on the profession. Computer and mathematical professions, for instance, provide men with more than $70,000 annually, but women only rate a median of $38,750—and make up less than a third of that workforce.

And women have less of a presence in some of the lower-paying industries, such as food service—where just 44.3 percent of the jobs are held by women. Nationally, that figure is 54.3 percent. That also skews the results to make the pay gap less.

The pay gap in the Durham-Chapel Hill area is the narrowest in the U.S. (Photo: AP)

2. Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina

• Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 91.7 percent

• Median earnings for men: $45,732

• Median earnings for women: $41,938

Corporate research complex Research Triangle Park may make all the difference for women in this area, since 19.7 percent of all architects and engineers in the metro area are women. In addition, they earn roughly $7,000 more than their male counterparts, each some of the highest figures nationwide.

With more than 200 companies at the complex offering such opportunities, that makes the pay gap here one of the narrowest in the country.

In the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area, women can out-earn men in some industries. (Photo: ThinkStock)

1. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Florida

• Women's pay as a percentage of men's: 93.6 percent

• Median earnings for men: $37,402

• Median earnings for women: $35,023

This is the lowest financial gap between men's and women's pay in the country, with women even out-earning their male counterparts in some industries.

The business and financial services sector in Cape Coral, for instance, is particularly lucrative for women, at a typical annual salary of $51,296—more than the $51,303 a typical man earns. And despite the fact that nationally, female health technologists and technicians earn just 82 percent of the median male earnings, the typical Cape Coral woman in the profession earns $5,100 more than the typical male in the position.

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