Higher education and high-wage gender inequality

Area of Science:

• Sociology
• Economics
• Higher Education Studies

Background:

• Gender wage inequality has shifted from lower-paid workers to high-earning, highly-educated individuals over 60 years.
• College graduates are central to understanding current gender wage inequality trends.
• The role of higher education in explaining top-end gender wage gaps requires examination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess how higher education mechanisms contribute to gender wage inequality among top earners.
• To determine if fields of study and advanced degrees explain the gender wage gap across the distribution.
• To identify the drivers of contemporary gender wage inequality at the highest income levels.

Main Methods:

• Utilized Census and American Community Survey (ACS) data.
• Employed unique decomposition models to analyze the gender wage gap.
• Examined the impact of bachelor's-level fields of study and advanced degree attainment.

Main Results:

• Higher education mechanisms (field of study, advanced degrees) explained gender wage gaps at lower and middle income levels.
• The explanatory power of these educational mechanisms diminished significantly for the highest-paid college-educated workers.
• Women's educational choices in fields of study or degree attainment did not account for the top-end gender wage gap.

Conclusions:

• Educational factors alone are insufficient to close the gender wage gaps contributing most to current inequality.
• Discriminatory pay-setting practices at the top of the wage distribution are a likely significant factor.
• Future research should explore the role of pay-setting discrimination in high-earner gender wage gaps.