Via American Association of University Women

We sift through a lot of arbitrary rankings when trying to equate D.C. to the 50 states—walkability, livability, other invented metrics, but here’s a statistic where the District is truly doing better than the rest of the nation, if still not well enough.

Although it’s still not a one-to-one ratio, D.C. has the lowest gender wage gap in the United States, with women here earning 90 cents on the dollar compared to men in 2011. That’s a lot better than the national average—with women earning 77 percent of what men make—but obviously still a dime short of actual equity.

The statistics come by way of the American Association of University Women, one of several advocacy groups that yesterday marked Equal Pay Day, which marks the day when an average female employee who started working on January 1, 2012 finished earning what an average male worker made in 2012. This “year,” it took an extra 99 days.

But how does D.C. come out on top? The Washington Post explains that the District’s dependence on the federal government as a primary industry presents a lot more wage transparency:

Fatima Goss-Graves, vice president for education and employment at the National Women’s Law Center, said it reflects the outsized role the federal government plays in Washington’s labor market. (Maryland, for what it’s worth, occupies the nation’s number-three spot at 86 cents, just behind Vermont.)

“There’s more transparency in wages,” said Goss-Graves, whose advocacy group is non-partisan. “There are pay scales that are clear, and there are no penalties for talking about what people make.

Bottom of the list? Wyoming, a state that has a smaller population than the District, and where women make just 67 cents for every dollar earned by men.