Study: Idaho one of worst states for income equity. Its big cities have large wage gaps

Boise is often seen as a city on the rise. It’s one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the country, attracting businesses, young professionals and families.

But the city faces a big divide in pay, according to a recent study.

Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the study found the median income for a full-time male worker in Idaho’s capital to be $52,943, while female workers earned just $36,844 — a difference of $16,099 per year. That means that women earn only 69 cents for every dollar men make.

Idaho as a whole has the fourth-largest gender pay gap in the country, with women earning $18,239 less than men on average, according to the study. That places it behind only Utah, New Hampshire and Wyoming in terms of income inequality.

Nationally, women earn about 83 cents of what men make.

The ranking echoed WalletHub’s Best and Worst State’s for Women’s Equality, which placed Idaho as the fourth-worst state behind Utah, Texas and Wyoming.

“States like Idaho and Utah are more conservative, and there tends to be a stronger support for traditional gender roles. Girls and young women are often prepared to be wives and mothers, while boys and young men are expected to have careers and be ‘providers.’ The result is that we get exactly what we prepare kids for: men transition into careers and women prioritize family responsibilities,” Kolene Anderson, Utah Women & Leadership project associate director, said in an interview.

“These norms lead to a lack of support for women’s full participation in the workforce, further contributing to wage disparities, and ultimately harming the very families our conservative cultures hold so dear.”

Wage gaps and women in the workforce

Boise’s wage gap isn’t even the worst in the Treasure Valley. That title easily goes to Meridian.

Just under half of the labor force of the United States, women are highly represented in industries such as education, health care and service jobs, while men are over-represented in high-paying fields such as tech, engineering and management, according to data gathered by the International Labour Organization.

Some of Idaho’s major industries include manufacturing, technology and construction — all areas dominated by men. The study found that women account for 3.4 percent of the construction labor force and 4 percent for industrial and refractory machinery mechanics.

“Research also shows then when male-dominated fields start to flip, the wages go down, and yet when female-dominated fields flip toward having more males, wages go up. I’m a strong believer that women don’t ‘choose’ lower-paying jobs; instead, our cultural inclination is to devalue (at least monetarily) ‘women’s work,’” Anderson said.

Despite recent pushes and programming to diversify the technology sector, women make up only about 25% of the tech workforce and only 11% of leadership roles within the sector, according to Forbes.

“It seems we so often must educate and re-educate people on why the gender pay gap exists, the ongoing challenges that perpetuate it, and advocate for change,” Anderson said. “I genuinely hope that we won’t need to keep discussing it because we’ll make social, educational, political and business shifts that will eliminate the pay gap.

“Maybe this is our last decade to talk about this issue.”