Friedrich Nietzsche famously said, "If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." We have been gazing into the gender pay gap (and, presumably, the gap has gazed back at us) for a while now—probably, says Investopedia, since "the beginnings of civilization"—but what has this staring contest achieved in terms of pay equity? There are signs of improvement: The U.S. Census Bureau reports that this year's Equal Pay Day, which is timed to represent how far into the year women need to work in order to equal what men earned in the previous year, fell on March 15, which is the earliest it's been since Equal Pay Day first began in 1996. Nevertheless, women earned 83 cents to every dollar earned by men in 2020. The gender pay gap persists. Employers better get on that, says Christine Cruzvergara, vice president of higher education and student success at Handshake. A 2021 report from the early career network shows that Gen Z workers in particular consider pay equity to be of paramount importance when choosing where to apply for a job. "Women make up almost 60% of undergraduate students, and by 2030, Generation Z will make up a third of the workforce," says Cruzvergara, underlining the importance of addressing issues like the gender pay gap. A new study from Census.gov illustrates that continuing gap utilizing the Bureau's 2019 American Community Survey as well as the 2019 Puerto Rico Community Survey. The study highlights selected top occupations by sex at the state level, with the aim to show how certain occupations have overrepresentations of men or women. On a national level, the top occupations selected for men were driver/sales workers and truck drivers; managers, all other; and first-line supervisors of retail sales workers. For women, the top occupations chosen were elementary and middle school teachers; registered nurses; and secretaries and administrative assistants, except legal, medical, and executive. The study found that the national earnings wage gap by sex in 2019 was $10,150 in the U.S. Median earnings for men who worked full-time that year was $53,544, while median earnings for women working full-time was $43,394. See our slideshow above for the places in the U.S. where the pay gaps are smallest and largest, and click here for the full study.