It's no secret that on average, women earn less money than men. The stat we hear most frequently is that women are making $0.78 for every dollar a man makes (or 22% less).
The sad truth is that women are on average paid less than men in all 50 states, but the gap varies greatly from state to state, according to research on 2014 pay rates by Expert Market.
Washington, DC has the best track record: Women are paid 9% less.
Louisiana has the worst: Women are paid a whopping 34% less.
The pay gap exists for a lot of reasons, such as women being subtly (or not so subtly) shut out of opportunities for advancement at their places of employment — the subject of Sheryl Sandberg's "Lean In" movement. Or women being subtly (or not so subtly) discouraged from pursuing high-paying industries like computer science and engineering — the subject of a lot of hand-wringing in Silicon Valley.
By using a man's salary as a 52-week baseline, Expert Market mapped out the date in each state at which women are theoretically working for free — when the money would run out if their weekly pay rate were the same as the men's, but their salaries were the same as they are now.
How does your state rate?