college, women and pay

[dead0man]

College grads make more money than non-college grads cite if you need it
More women than men have college degrees cite for total and cite that it started going the other way in 1980-81
Men make more than women cite if you need it


I understand how this can be, men tend to have degrees in things that get them paid and women tend to not.  Many of the higher paying jobs that don't require a degree are gross, dangerous and/or hard and more men are willing to do that than women.  Even though women have gotten more degrees annually than men since 1981, they caught up with men in total degrees in just the last 5 years.  And, sadly, there is still sexism around.


What I don't understand is why the pay gap is as large as it is considering the first two facts.  The reasons listed above don't seem like they should be enough to make it that big.  Am I missing a factor or three?

[Karpatsky]

Men are more likely to work in the first place, and to seek higher-paying but more intensive work.

[Cory]

The idea of a pay-gap emerging directly from women literally being paid less for the same job on average seems to be a myth.

[Associate Justice PiT]

The idea of a pay-gap emerging directly from women literally being paid less for the same job on average seems to be a myth.

     It is a dense read, but close to a decade ago CONSAD did a report on this for the Department of Labor. They identified a variety of choices made by the individuals that affected pay rates, and concluded that these factors comprised a substantial majority of the pay gap, with the unexplained remainder being 4.8 to 7.1%. While there does appear to be some amount of women being paid less for the same job (owing to factors such as less willingness to negotiate salary), I will concur that this by itself demonstrably fails to fully explain the gender pay gap.

[nclib]

It is not a coincidence that female-dominated jobs tend to pay less than male-dominated jobs. I doubt the reason parking lot attendants make more than child care workers, is because people care about their cars more than their children.

[dead0man]

It is not a coincidence that female-dominated jobs tend to pay less than male-dominated jobs. I doubt the reason parking lot attendants make more than child care workers, is because people care about their cars more than their children.

No, it's because parking lot attendants get run over or shot on the job way more often than day care workers, and you don't get to play with babies all day.  Nobody dreams of being a parking lot attendant when they are kids, lots of people dream of taking care of kids when they are kids.  You've got to pay people more to get them to do things nobody wants to do.

[Del Tachi]

Averroes post is good.  It's possible there may still be more total male college graduates than female graduates, and the male graduates are certainly more likely to be in their "peak" earning years.

[Former President tack50]

Actually, I do think the so-called wage gap is a problem that will fix itself over time.

As you say, women get more degrees than men and income is correlated with getting higher education.

Yes, women do get their degrees in less lucrative markets, but at that point you have 2 opposing influences. And many of those "dangerous but well paid and don't require education" jobs are also the kind that can probably be automated.

The wage gap maybe won't get fully covered, but it will certainly get close (I can see it going from 95 to 105 cents made for every 100 a man makes by 2050)