Employment and Earnings

 

Employment trends and patterns in West Virginia are highly gendered based on the state’s historical and contemporary economic activities and the overall status of women. 

As a whole, women’s work is vital to household economies, yet they face significant challenges in many areas of the economy. For example, the gender wage gap in West Virginia is the largest in the country with women who work full-time year round earning only 69 percent of men’s earnings. These earnings vary considerably when examined alongside educational attainment of both men and women. 

Finally, women and men tend to be segregated in certain occupations that reflect attitudes about gender roles in society. Over one half of all women work in the service sector while one in five men work in mining and construction.