“So what’s incentivizing us if we are going to make considerably less than our male counterparts the more educated we get?”

Karen Hughes White
President and CEO
Texas Women’s Foundation
… on newly released Census data showing D-FW has the widest gender pay gap among U.S. metros with populations over 5 million, via the Dallas Morning News.

D-FW women recorded a median income $16,600 less than men in 2024. For every dollar a man earned, a woman earned 72 cents.

That gap has widened since the pandemic, even as the region’s economy grew over 75% and median incomes rose nearly 60% over the past decade, according to a Dallas Morning News report on Census data, part of the newspaper’s Future of North Texas initiative.

What’s more, Texas women are outpacing men in higher education enrollment and academic achievement, yet the wage gap widens as women achieve advanced degrees, according to a Texas Women’s Foundation report cited by the publication. Women with graduate or professional degrees earn an average of $37,000 less annually than their male counterparts.

“That’s money left on the table that could buy a house and send kids to college,” said Karen Hughes White, president and CEO of Texas Women’s Foundation. Over a lifetime, that adds up to nearly $750,000 in lost earnings, the foundation estimates.

The Dallas Morning News story features an all-female roster of North Texas leaders weighing in on the data and what it will take to close the gap, including Saki Milton of The GEMS Camp, Lynn McBee of Young Women’s Preparatory Network, and Kate Rose Marquez of Ascend Dallas. Each is tackling the challenge from a different angle, from STEM pipeline to workforce development to direct services for women in poverty.

As White put it: “Texas, and North Texas, are an economic powerhouse that in many ways are powered by its women. So you really have to step back and take that holistic look at what women want and need to work fully, consistently, and productively.”

Read the full Dallas Morning News story here.

For more of who said what about all things North Texas, check out Every Last Word.

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