Report says 80% gender gap in income in Virginia

Women earned about 80 percent of what men did in Virginia last year, the highest level since 2005, a new federal report said. The state also had the highest wages for women in the South, the study said.

In 2009, women holding full-time jobs in Virginia had median weekly earnings of $705, compared with $877 for men, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

Nationally, the gender gap in income also was 80 percent – the first time since 2005 that Virginia didn’t lag behind the national average.

Median wages last year were higher in Virginia than the national average, which was $657 for women and $819 for men.

In Virginia, women earned 81 percent of what men made in 2004 and 2005. That plummeted to 74 percent in 2006, but the number has risen every year since, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.

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