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The Gender Gap in Starting Salaries for New College Graduates

In: Gender in the Labor Market

Author

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  • Robert J. Thornton
  • Judith A. McDonald

Abstract

Using a unique data set from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), we estimate the gender starting-salary gap for college graduates from 2000 to 2010. Simulation techniques are used to estimate how the salary gap would change if women had selected the same majors or job types as men. We find that about 90% of the starting-salary gap is explainable by gender differences in majors and types of job offers – a higher percentage than found in most other studies. Duncan indexes of dissimilarity also indicate that the gender distributions of job offers by college major and type of first jobs have not become more similar over the past 10 years. Although differences in college major and types of first jobs explain most of the gender gap in starting salaries of college graduates, small but unexplained gender pay differences reveal themselves in the NACE statistics.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert J. Thornton & Judith A. McDonald, 2015. "The Gender Gap in Starting Salaries for New College Graduates," Research in Labor Economics, in: Gender in the Labor Market, volume 42, pages 205-229, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:rleczz:s0147-912120150000042006
    DOI: 10.1108/S0147-912120150000042006
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    Cited by:

    1. repec:hal:journl:hal-03383112 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1ta425q4ev9o6a76uep4hjlunc is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Anne Boring & Jennifer Brown, 2021. "Gender and Choices in Higher Education," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03383112, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender pay gap; college graduates; college major; discrimination; J16; J31; J71;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing

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