Business Ownership by Gender in Oregon
January 16, 2025
The U.S. Census Bureau launched the Annual Business Survey in 2017 to capture economic and demographic information on businesses and their owners. This data in combination with economic census data and administrative records tells a different story about business ownership not available elsewhere. How does gender shape the landscape of business ownership in Oregon?
A note on the use of sex in this article: while gender is a spectrum, this article only uses the two binary sexes “female” and “male.” While sex identification on a Social Security document can be binary or non-binary, the Census record system can only designate a person as either female or male.
Ownership Demographics
The Annual Business Survey reported 91,261 firms in operation in 2022. Most of these firms are male-owned (56%), while women-owned businesses accounted for almost a quarter (22%). Equal ownership businesses, those owned by both men and women, were 16% of the total.
Certain industries saw higher concentrations of ownership along gender lines. The highest rates of female ownership were in health care and social assistance (37%), real estate and rental and leasing (36%), and other services (28%). Other services is a broad sector that includes industries ranging from automotive repair and maintenance to social advocacy organizations. Industries with the lowest concentration of female ownership were information (11%), mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction (8%), and construction (8%).
Male ownership saw the highest concentrations in construction (74%), agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (66%), and transportation and warehousing (64%). Industries with the lowest concentrations of male ownership included health care and social assistance (41%), real estate and rental and leasing (41%), and arts, entertainment, and recreation (39%).
Equal ownership firms were most common in industries such as mining, quarrying, oil and gas extraction (25%), accommodation and food services (23%), and real estate and rental and leasing (20%). Unclassified ownership status was highest in arts, entertainment, and recreation (27%), information (16%), and wholesale trade (15%).
Annual Average Wages
The annual average wage across all sectors for Oregon in 2022 was $59,623. Male-owned firms with payroll employees paid higher wages ($53,645) compared with female-owned firms ($42,702). The top three highest paying industries were information ($93,438), finance and insurance ($92,704), and professional scientific and technical services ($87,413).
Male-owned businesses paid an average annual wage of $53,645 across all industries. The highest annual average wages were in finance and insurance ($93,762), wholesale trade ($76,280), and professional, scientific and technical services ($74,405). Other services ($38,405); arts, entertainment, and recreation ($26,628); and accommodation and food services ($26,113) were the sectors that had the lowest pay among male owned firms.
There were a select few industries in which equal ownership businesses paid more than either their male- or female-owned counterparts. Professional, scientific, and technical services ($76,434) paid over $2,000 more than male-owned and over $13,000 more than female-owned firms. Other services ($41,624), also paid a $3,000 premium over male-owned ($38,405) and $10,000 over female-owned firms ($31,402).
More information about business ownership by industry and gender, race, or ethnicity can be found at https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/abs.html.