The Pay Gap in STEM Fields
In the wake of the White House's Women in America report and in preparation for Equal Pay Day on April 12, let's talk about pay equity in science and engineering.
Occupational segregation accounts for the majority of the pay gap between men and women. But even within the same occupation, men tend to earn more than women. This chart shows the gender pay gap in various science and engineering fields along with the percentage of women in each field. Although women still earn less than men do in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, women in science and engineering tend to earn more than women earn in other fields.
In fact, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, the 10 best-paid bachelor's degrees in the class of 2010 were all engineering, computer science, or information science degrees. Additionally, the pay gap between men and women in STEM fields tends to be smaller than in the population as a whole (where women earn, on average, 77 percent of what men earn) and smaller than in many other fields.
STEM careers can provide women with a greater degree of economic security than many other fields, which is another compelling reason to encourage girls in science and engineering.
Any thoughts?
Alan,
Yes and yes!
Unions help. And Washington DC does indeed have the smallest pay gap of all the "states". And that is due in part to the smaller pay gap among federal workers compared to the population in general. Among federal workers, women earn 89% of what men earn, on average, compared with 77 percent in the workforce as a whole.
Christi
Hi Christi,
I noticed that Washington, DC was the best "state" to work.
Civil service?
Does a union help? Teacher's for example but even industrial unions.
Hi Alan,
You bring up some interesting contributors to the pay gap. There is some truth to your daughter's thought that the pay gap is in part attributable to more men in the higher ranks of STEM fields just by virtue of the fact that fewer women went into these fields 30 or 40 years ago. Unfortunately, there is evidence that the pay gap is not only about gender differences in experience though. AAUW did a study called Behind the Pay Gap a few years back and looked at the pay gap among college graduates 1 year and 10 years out of college that controlled for many different factors like college major, experience, occupation, industry, sector, hours worked, workplace flexibility, experience, educational attainment, GPA, institution selectivity, age, race/ethnicity, region, marital status, and children. After accounting for all of these factors thought to affect earnings (whether fairly or not), AAUW found that a five percent difference in the earnings of male and female college graduates one year after graduation was still unexplained. A similar analysis of full time workers, ten years after college graduation, found a 12 percent unexplained difference in earnings. It’s important to realize that any apples-to-apples comparison like this actually understates the real difference between the average man’s earnings and the average woman’s earnings because women are much more likely than men to work part time or leave the labor force temporarily because of family obligations.
AAUW has just put out a new guide to pay equity for Equal Pay Day - which is tomorrow! You can find the guide here - http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/upload/SimpleTruthAboutPayGap.pdf
Christi
Hi Laura,
After reading your post. Found this.
Very out of date. 1986
And I don't subscribe to the publication. Your library might have the full paper.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/4106169
And the abstract
Abstract
The comparative willingness of men and women to be geographically mobile for occupational advancement and the contributions of various factors to this relationship are explored using national survey-data. Variables identified by past theory and research as mediating the association between sex and willingness to move did explain a substantial amount of variance in willingness to relocate in the entire sample and subsamples of married respondents and respondents in dual-earner couples. However, in each case, sex continued to explain significant additional variance in willingness to move. Reasons for this finding and implications for further research are explored.
The premise seems to be mobility = $
Hi Alan,
Many good points you've made in this thread! We have discussed earlier some of these points, including the lack of demand for a raise, the emphasis on good benefits. But the idea about women being less willing to move to get a better position is interesting to me. I suspect you're right, but I haven't seen a good study documenting that. Perhaps Christi will know of one.
cheers,
Laura
Now I know this site needs an edit button.
I have a good friend and part time employer; who does a great deal of IT work for NASA and DOD.
His company has a lot of permanent employees and even more independent contractors.
His take on the subject.
Women do not ask for/demand pay raises. Men do.
Women are much more interested in benefits, especially good health insurance. Men not so much.
You keep good women working for you by providing benefits ie flex time, child friendly policies.
You keep good men working for you with money.
This site needs an edit button.
I have been advised by my daughter that she could make a lot more money if she were willing to move and switch employers. Something, that her male contemporaries seem to be much more willing to do. Also, women seem to be more willing to move when their husbands get an offer than vice-versa. Even if that means they end up with a crappy job.
I have a daughter working at CBO as a statistician. She was not surprised by the numbers.
The top civil service positions in her field are filled by old white guys, who have two things in their favor. They were there before women were even thinking of statistics as a career and they stayed there. Their pay reflects their rise through the ranks and time at the job.
Her take on the subject is that as women "age" into the system the discrepancies will disappear.
The statistic that has me worried is the lack of women engineers.
I wonder if there is any one thing that could really take down those barriers now. A lot of behavior is now illegal that men got away with earlier. Women get the discount ("affirmative action") sometimes. Is there a remedy for that? How much of the barrier is actually childbirth/childcare issues? I know not all women who drop out have kids, for what that's worth. But they often feel like Sisyphus, pushing a big boulder up a hill endlessly trying to get some respect.
Hi Christi,
I think its actually shocking that the disparity is still so large, and the difference in fields selected is a big part of the reason. All the more reason why we need to get rid of those last barriers and biases and get more women into STEM fields. But there is still a bit of salary discrimination in STEM fields (89% and 94% are better than 77%, the national average for college grads, but they are not good enough!).
cheers,
Laura
