Best-Paying Jobs For Women

by LearnVest 0

Whether it personally impacts you or not, it's important to be aware that the gender gap actually widened last year. In spite of — or maybe because of — that, our partners at LearnVest have put together a list of the best-paying jobs out there for women.

It's a shame that the inequality still exists, since reports show that closing the gender gap can actually help the economy.

We thought last year felt a little 2005ish, didn't you?

No? Okay, maybe not, but according to the latest numbers, one thing last year was very similar to 2005, and it doesn't make us happy. According to the numbers released in February, the gender gap actually widened by more than a percentage point in 2012, taking us back to levels from 2005 with women earning 81 cents for every dollar earned by men.

Additionally, the hourly pay for female college grads dropped 8.5% between 2000 and 2011, compared to 1.6% for men.

Despite that news, the good news is that Forbes came out with a list of top-paying jobs for women in 2012, and the position in the top spot offers equal pay for men and women.

To come up with their findings, Forbes analyzed the median weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers in 2012, detailed by occupation and gender and tracked by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Perhaps not surprisingly, top jobs included positions in health care, business and computer science.

The top 10 jobs, their median yearly earnings and the percentage of women who comprised the profession are listed below:

1. Pharmacist: $97,500; 52%
2. Chief Executive: $90,000; 26%
3. Lawyer: $85,000; 33%
4. Nurse Practitioner: $79,500; 84%
5. Computer and Information Systems Manager: $79,500; 26%
6. Physician and Surgeon: $74,000; 35%
7. Physician Assistant: $71,000; 69%
8. Software Developer, Applications and Systems Software: $71,000; 20%
9. Management Analyst: $69,000; 42%
10. Computer Systems Analyst: $65,000; 33%

Check out these other smart LearnVest stories:

A Guy Confides: I Get Paid More Than My Female Co-Worker

10 States Will Raise the Minimum Wage in 2013

10 Stereotypically Female Jobs in Which Men Earn More

5 Tips to Negotiate Your Salary Up