Step aside, guys. Women are moving up the payroll.  According to a March “Women at Work” report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the gender wage gap continues to narrow. Women earned 81 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2010, up from 76 cents in 2000. Moreover, recent reports suggest that young urban women now earn 8% more than male peers, likely due to higher college graduation rates.

The fact remains, however, that men still earn more in almost every U.S. occupation—except in a telling few. An analysis of 2009 median weekly earnings for full-time workers, collected by the BLS, reveals at least 15 jobs where women earn slightly more than male colleagues.

Perhaps most surprising, women out-earn men in several male-dominated construction jobs. Female construction laborers, construction supervisors, maintenance painters, and aircraft and vehicle mechanics earn slightly above the median earnings for both sexes—despite holding just 3% of these jobs.
“Researchers have found that both sexes fare better when they are in the minority,” says Caren Goldberg, a management professor at American University’s business school in Washington, D.C. “Women who choose male-dominated jobs are likely perceived as “atypical” or less consistent with the stereotypesassociated with women, which are also associated with lower-paying jobs.”