Most women and men (89 and 87 percent respectively) are employed within a year following graduation. Most new college graduates are at the beginning of their careers and typically don't have extensive professional experience. Yet, one year after college, female graduates working full time earn only about 80 percent as much as male graduates earn, according to an examination of the gender pay gap for college graduates released recently.
The study, conducted by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation found that women earn less than men in nearly every field. Ten years after graduation, women fall further behind, earning only 69 percent as much as men.
Catherine Hill, AAUW director of research, said in an interview that understanding pay differences between female and male graduates one year out of college provides an insight into the future of the pay gap. “These employees don’t have a lot of experience and, for the most part, don’t have care-giving obligations, so you’d expect there to be very little difference in the wages of men and women, “ Hill said. “But surprisingly, and unfortunately, we find that women already earn less – even when they have the same major and occupation a their male counterparts.”
In addition to pay discrimination nationwide, researchers have found gaps in particular occupations - accountants, Wall Street securities analysts, veterinarians, corporate executives, and engineers.
The report finds that some gap in pay between female and male college graduates cannot be fully accounted for by factors known to affect wages such as employment, educational, or personal choices. While researchers disagree about the portion of the gap that is unaccounted for --5 percent to 12 percent -- many have attributed the unexplained portion to gender discrimination.
According to the study, ten years after graduation, male college graduates working full time have more workplace authority than do their female counterparts. Men are more likely to supervise others (66 percent of men and 54 percent of women), participate in hiring and firing decisions (51 percent of men and 38 percent of women), or set pay rates (29 percent of men and 18 percent of women).
More than 18, 000 women and men who graduated from undergraduate institutions at or before age 35 were interviewed. The study, “Behind the Pay Gap” uses data from the U.S. Department of Education’s study Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study that provides a nationally representative sample of institutions, students, and parents.
