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March 1998, Vol. 121, No. 3
Earnings of college graduates: women compared with men
Daniel E. Hecker
- Among
college graduates aged 25 to 64, womens median
annual earnings were 73 percent of mens in 1993.
When median earnings of women are compared with those of
men of a similar age and with similar levels of
education, major fields of study, and occupational
characteristics, however, the earnings gap narrowed
progressively, although still spanning a wide range: in
some cases, women earned nearly as much as, or even more
than, men with the same characteristics, while in others,
women earned much less. This article uses a 1993 National
Science Foundation survey to examine the differences
between the earnings of men and women graduates in order
to answer the question, How much do women earn compared
with men? The short answer to this question is that there
are many answers to it: in some fields of study and
occupations women do particularly well in relation to
men, in others they do not fare so well, and in still
others they are in between.
-
- Data and methodology
-
- In 1993, the National Science Foundation
surveyed a sample of 215,000 persons under age 75 who
reported in the 1990 census that they had a
bachelors or higher degree as of April 1990.1 Survey sampling rates varied by occupation
reported. Data on earnings are considered statistically
reliable for scientific and technical major fields of
study with an employment of about 3,000 or more and for
nonscientific majors with about 6,000 or more. This
article includes only data at that level of reliability.
-
- Earnings data from the survey were
available only for full-time wage and salary workers. In
some occupations, many graduates were self-employed. For
these occupations, and for the majors leading to them,
the earnings shown may differ from the earnings of all
graduates as a whole, and the comparisons between women
and men also may differ. Among the occupations most
affected in this manner are psychologists; lawyers;
writers, artists, and entertainers; salesworkers, except
retail; health professionals; and architects.
This excerpt is from an article published in
the March 1998 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. The full
text of the article is available in Adobe Acrobat's Portable
Document Format (PDF). See How to view
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Footnotes
1 Individuals who received a bachelors
degree after April 1990 are not included. The survey is the
largest one available that has collected detailed information
about college graduates employment characteristics, such as
earnings and occupation, by major field of study.
Related BLS programs
Labor Force Statistics from the
Current Population Survey
- Related Monthly
Labor Review articles
- Earnings of college graduates. December
1995.
-
- Further analyses of the labor market for
college graduates. February 1995.
-
- Education and the work histories of young
adults. April 1993.
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