Chasing Parity: Gender Pay Gaps in the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota

Minnesota ranks third in the nation for its female labor force participation rate and 12th for the percent of women with a Bachelor’s Degree or higher. Despite these accomplishments, female workers in Minnesota experience lower earnings compared to their male peers. This study analyzes the extent and sources of gender pay gaps in Minnesota using the following research questions: 1) Can we observe gender wage gaps even when taking into account productivity-related factors? 2) Is there a difference between the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota in the size of the gender wage gap and in the mix of factors that drive it? Understanding the mechanisms through which gaps develop and which components account for most of the gap can help craft policy responses that address the underlying sources of the disparities.

The dataset consists of 255,519 individuals who enrolled in a Minnesota post-secondary institution, exited between July 2009 and June 2014, and were employed in Minnesota five years after school exit. This cohort-based approach ensures that all individuals had approximately the same amount of job search time since exiting school. The analysis is restricted to students who reported being of white race and were 40 years or younger at the time of exit in order to control for the role that race and age play in wage gaps and thus to simplify the analysis.1

https://mn.gov/deed/newscenter/publications/review/may-2019/parity.jsp