KY Stats presents ‘Women in Kentucky’ snapshot: higher degrees, lower earnings, gaps in childcare access

The Kentucky Commission on Women on a webinar hosted KY Stats (the Kentucky Center for Statistics) to unveil a new "Women in Kentucky" data snapshot that highlights education and workforce disparities across the state.

Matt Berry, executive director of the Kentucky Center for Statistics, told commissioners the report draws on the Kentucky Longitudinal Data System and national sources such as the American Community Survey to track trends in educational attainment, earnings, labor-force participation and early-childhood indicators. "We have what I think is the best and most robust longitudinal data system in the country," Berry said.

The snapshot shows a notable divergence: by 2022 a higher share of Kentucky women age 25 and older held a bachelor’s degree or higher (peaking near 29%) compared with men (about 25–26%). Yet median earnings for full-time, year-round female workers remained lower than for men over the same period. Berry summarized the contrast this way: women have seen larger percentage wage gains over the decade but still lag in raw median earnings.

KY Stats also reported labor-force participation differences. The analysis of 20-to-64-year-olds found female participation in Kentucky hovers around 70%, below the national average of roughly 74%. Berry noted a gap in available data for 2020 and cautioned listeners about interpretation where records are missing.

The presentation included early-childhood measures: kindergarten readiness (Brigance entry exam) scores were higher for female children across the timeline, with a reported dip in the 2022 report tied to timing of testing for the 2021 fall cohort. KY Stats emphasized that these early indicators correlate with later academic outcomes but are not deterministic.

The data package also examined specific labor-market pipelines. A teacher-pipeline visualization shows the workforce funnel ends with roughly an 81% female share among those ever employed in public K–12. KY Stats cited a Council on Postsecondary Education analysis showing parenting undergraduates are disproportionately female (about 75% of parenting undergraduates in 2022–23).

Berry highlighted a KY Stats analysis of first-time parents’ wage trajectories from 2013–2019. In the cohorts studied, working first-time fathers’ wages rose about 80%, while working first-time mothers’ wages rose about 40%.

KY Stats closed the presentation with a childcare-access map: "up to about 11% of our total population in the state live outside of a 15-minute drive window to their nearest child care facility," Berry said, adding the map includes caveats and that the statistic depends on mapping assumptions.

During a question-and-answer session, commissioners asked what additional measures KY Stats is tracking. Berry pointed to the agency's working-mothers blog and broader income-mobility work as places where more disaggregated analyses are available. Barrett Ross, lead research analyst at KY Stats, offered to pull American Community Survey items and other survey data that ask respondents why they are not participating in the labor force (for example, caregiving, childcare or transportation barriers).

The commission said it plans to publish the snapshot annually to track changes over time. The webinar concluded with thanks to the KY Stats team and a note that the recording will be archived on the Commission’s YouTube page; the Commission also announced a June session with details to follow.

What happens next: KY Stats offered to provide the commission with additional breakdowns (including survey responses on barriers to work) and to connect commissioners with content experts for deeper analysis; commissioners said they will use the data to inform future Commission priorities.