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October 25, 2021

Women earn less than men even right out of school: report

One of today’s more intriguing economic storylines concerns the wage gap between genders, which we’ve covered plenty on this site.

432220_optimismAnd if we’ve established anything, it’s that women almost always get a rawer pay deal than men. This is without question.

Though the notion often comes with several rationalizations. For instance, people contend women aren’t paid as much as men on the whole simply because they reach executive roles in far fewer numbers than their male counterparts.

This is correct – the world’s CEOs are overwhelmingly male – but it also conceals a further point: women aren’t only paid less than men late in their careers, when many males are climbing the corporate ladder, but right out of the gate, too.

By figures in a recently released study, women in the U.S. even begin their professional lives at a pay disadvantage to men.

*Bing: The highest-paying jobs for women

According to the American Association of University Women, which used Department of Education data from 2009, within one year of graduating a post-secondary institution men already earn more than women.

After just 12 months out of school, men pull in salaries averaging US$42,918, while women earn only US$35,296.

That’s a near 22 per cent difference, and a figure that comes with even more discouraging news for women.

The study’s data shows that salary discrepancies exist no matter what programs women graduate from.

Nine different fields were surveyed for the report, and the pay gap between men and women fell in line in each one of them.

So while, as the study found, engineering grads earn more than graduates from many other fields, female engineering alums earn still only 88 per cent of what male engineering alums do in the real world.

By Jason Buckland, MSN Money

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Gordon PowersGordon Powers

A long-time fund company executive, Gordon Powers now heads up the Affinity Group, a financial services consulting firm. Gordon was a personal finance columnist for the Globe & Mail for many years, has taught retirement planning...

Jason BucklandJason Buckland

The modern-day MC Hammer of money, Jason can often be seen spending cash that isn’t his with the efficiency of a Wilt Chamberlain first date. After cutting his teeth as a reporter for the Toronto Sun, he joined the MSN Money team with...