The pay gap between men and women in the U.S. — the 80-ish cents on the dollar that the average woman earns for every dollar the average man does — has narrowed at such a slow pace that it would be unfair to glaciers to call it glacial.
Women Dominate College Majors That Lead to Lower-Paying Work
The pay gap between men and women in the U.S — the 80-ish cents on the dollar that the average woman earns for every dollar earned by the average man — has narrowed at such a slow pace that it would be unfair to glaciers to call it glacial. Large chunks of the gap can be accounted for by differences like industry and role. And at the root of these differences, according to a new research report by Glassdoor, could be college major. Examining 46,934 resumes shared on Glassdoor.com by people who graduated between 2010 and 2017, the researchers looked at each person’s college major and their post-college jobs in the five years after graduation. They then estimated the median pay for each of those jobs (also using Glassdoor data) for employees with five years or less of experience. Their key finding: “Many college majors that lead to high-paying roles in tech and engineering are male dominated, while majors that lead to lower-paying roles in social sciences and liberal arts tend to be female-dominated, placing men in higher-paying career pathways, on average.” But other research shows that pay declines when women move into a field (like biology), and compensation rises as men take a field over (like computer programming). So even if more women move into high-paying college majors, the result may not be equal pay.