The city of Syracuse recently ranked the second-best metro area in the U.S. for the closing of the gender pay gap.

The ranking is based on 2013 data from the U.S. Census Bureau regarding the incomes of men and women in the workforce. Data from 2013 shows that women working full-time at a year-round job made around 78 percent of men’s earnings, just a one percent jump from the previous year, according to a July 15 article by PolitiFact.

Syracuse appears to be rising above the statistic, however, as the second-most glass-ceiling shattering city in the U.S., according to the study, released in late August by news blog SpareFoot. The Albany-Schenectady-Troy metro area topped the list and the Grand Rapids-Wyoming, Michigan area ranked last.

Alexander Harris, the author of the study, said the study shows how progressive a city is in continually closing the gender pay gap, as well as being a good place for women to advance.

The study considered four equally weighted factors regarding women’s earnings to rank the top 10 best and worst statistical metropolitan areas for the advancement of equal pay. The factors — all based on data from 2013 — include women’s median earnings, the growth in women’s median earnings over a five-year period, women’s median earnings as a percentage of men’s median earnings and the growth in this percentage over a five-year period.

To find the ranking of each city, the ranks were converted to scores and added up for each factor. Syracuse was ranked second in growth, 37th in women’s median earnings, 44th in women’s median earnings as percentage of men’s earnings and 11th for growth as a percentage of men’s wages.

After the ranks were added together, Syracuse was given a score of 94, only behind the Albany-Schenectady-Troy metro area, which had a lower and better score of 74.

“In the case of Syracuse, I’d say being second in the country for women’s median wage growth is a very proud achievement,” Harris said.

Published on September 2, 2015 at 11:36 am