Money & Finance

According to the New York Times, census data shows that young women in big North American cities are making more money than men! Experts predict that within 20 years, women will be the breadwinners in one out of every four families.

Here’s how the data broke down, courtesy of the Daily Mail. The gap was largest in New York City and Dallas, where women in their twenties, of all educational levels, earned almost 20% more than men. Women did modestly better than guys in Chicago, Boston, Minneapolis, and a few other big cities. Although nationwide, young women still earned less: about 89% of the average pay for men. The reason for the rise in earnings may have to do with women being smarter, or at least more educated. In 2005, more than half of the working women in New York were college graduates, compared with only 38% of men that age. One theory is that women know what they want to do in life sooner than men. But the earnings increase also has to do with modern women wanting to get their careers underway before they focus on marriage and family.

So what about women being the major breadwinners in a quarter of families by the year 2030? These findings are also based on women’s growing financial strength. More of them are attending college, childcare options are improving and there are more opportunities for employment in new and growing industries. The report concludes that today’s generation of women is better educated, more ambitious, and more financially competent than any before them. If you still don’t believe times have changed that much, check out this statistic: Fifty years ago a lot of women didn’t even know how much their husband earned. It sounds like the popular phrase from the 1970s has finally come true: “You’ve come a long way, baby!”