Gender Pay Gap– even for recent graduates
We’ve all heard about the gender pay gap– women earn anywhere from 65 cents to 75 cents to men’s $1. But that’s certainly couldn’t be true for our generation– twentysomethings right out of college. There’s no way we can be earning less than men our age at our exact same jobs, is there?
Apparently, there is. According to a recent study by the American Association of University Women women just one year out of college earn only 80 percent as much as males. (That’s 80 cents to the dollar.)
“Wait, wait” you say, “women work lower paying jobs in lower paying fields.”
Yes, this is true, but even accounting for that, women still earn less than men:
In education, a female-dominated major, women earn 95 percent as much as their male colleagues earn. In biological sciences, a mixed-gender major, women earn only 75 percent as much as men earn. Likewise in mathematics—a male- dominated major—women earn only 76 percent as much as men earn.
It seems that no matter what field you choose, as a woman, (on average) you will earn less than your male counterparts.
Say what you want, but discrimination exists. And unfortunately, as these numbers reveal, we are not about to see the end of it anytime soon.
You can read the CNN article about the study here. And you can download the full report here.
I wrote about this very thing in my post “Women Still Getting Screwed at the Office” at dailycents.com.