The 2009 American Community Survey shows that the wage gap between men and women persists in every corner of the United States, though not quite every corner of American territory. Women earn 78.2 cents per dollar that men earn -- up from 77.2 cents in 2008. The average full-time, year-round female worker earns $35594 compared to $45485 for a full-time, year-round male worker. The wage gap was the lowest in the District of Columbia where women earned 88.2% of what men did. In Wyoming, women earned just 65.5% of what men did. Unlike women in every state on the mainland, Puerto Rican women earned $1.033 per dollar men earned in Puerto Rico. With a 90% margain of error of 3.2%, that advantage is slight, but statistically significant. Still, Puerto Rican woman earn far less than women in any state. Per capita income on the island is about half of the United States average.

Correlation however, does not imply causation (ie. gender discrimination). Some evidence suggests that in most professions, gender inequities are explained by other exogenous factors not evenly distributed across genders.