For Women, College Achievement Doesn’t Translate to Workplace Compensation

Another day, another 81 cents on the dollar. Yes, a new report reveals that although women vastly outnumber men in postsecondary institutions, they still only earn 81 cents for every dollar a man makes in the workforce.
The report, which was commissioned by Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, also looked at an apples-to-apples comparison:Men and women with the same college majors and working in exactly the same careers. That matchup showed that women still only earn 92 cents on every dollar a man makes.
In a recent article in Community College Daily, it’s pointed out that women have made significant strides when it comes to degree attainment—they made up 75 percent of the growth in associate degrees over the past 40 years. But while the median male with an associate degree earns $56,000, the median income for women with the same degree is just $39,000.
The disparity is largely attributable to what fields men and women choose. Women are three times more likely to go into health-related professions, while men choose high-paying STEM fields four times more often.