Employment grows but earnings lag for Allen County women, new report shows

To mark the Women’s Fund of Greater Fort Wayne’s five-year anniversary, the Community Foundation asked Purdue University Fort Wayne’s Community Research Institute to update its 2020 report on the status of local women and girls.

While women are working, they are working for less locally, statewide, and nationally when measured by earnings, which essentially amount to paychecks from wages and salaries and do not include other income such as child support, Social Security, rentals, or non-cash assistance.

Often called the wage gap, the difference between men and women’s median earnings in Allen County for 2019 to 2023 was $16,173, which is a $1,482 increase from 2014 to 2018 when measured in 2023 dollars. Median earnings capture full- and part-time employees equivalently.

Rachel Blakeman is director of the Community Research Institute at Purdue University Fort Wayne. Read her opinion column on this subject in The Journal Gazette (subscription required).