gender-based wage gap

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois is joining President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats in an election-year push to bridge the pay gap between men and women.

Speaking on the Senate Floor Tuesday, Durbin called on his Republican colleagues to help pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.

“It says that women cannot be discriminated in the workplace simply because they are women,” he said.

Only four other metropolitan areas in the United States have bigger gender-based wage gaps than St. Louis. 

That's according to rankings out from the National Partnership for Women & Families.

Here's how wages between men and women in the "top 5" metropolitan areas in the rankings shake out:

1. Seattle: $0.27 wage gap

2. Pittsburgh: $0.27 wage gap