MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- The financial literacy website NerdWallet says Murfreesboro tops the list of cities with the fastest decreasing pay gap between men and women.
In an article out this week, NerdWallet says gender pay equity in Murfreesboro improved by nearly 34 percent between 2007 and 2012.
Equal gender pay was enshrined in federal law more than 50 years ago, but pay disparity continues to persist. American men make - on average - about 23 percent more than women performing the same tasks.
NerdWallet analyst Sreekar Jafthi says that, unfortunately, the gains seen in Murfreesboro aren’t all the result of women being paid more appropriately. He says the economic downturn is largely responsible.
“In 2007 the average male income in Murfreesboro was about $51,000, but by 2012 that decreased to about $42,000. Whereas the average woman’s income was $33,000, but it increased to almost $37,000 in 2012.”
The City of Knoxville also scored in NerdWallet’s list of top 25 cities with the fastest improvement in the gender pay gap. He says, however, that most other cities on the list are located in the West and in the North.