World Macro News: Educated Women Get Paid Less Than Uneducated Men -- And 8 More Higher-Ed Scandals

Monday, February 28, 2011

Educated Women Get Paid Less Than Uneducated Men -- And 8 More Higher-Ed Scandals

law school student

Getting into college -- the more competitive the better -- ensures you will have a successful life, or so you're told.

Throw gender and other factors into the mix, however, and the picture becomes less clear.

One recent study shows a disappointing return for elite colleges, especially for women. Another study shows a disproportionate disadvantage for college binge drinkers that are women. Other studies show that college students don't really learn much.

Women with associate degrees earn less than men who didn't go to college

Researchers found that women with associate degrees from community colleges made about $10,000 less five years after graduation than men who didn't graduate from college.

Women with associate degrees made $27,377 on average in 2007, while men without a degree earned $37,745.

Berkeley Law professor Mary Ann Mason blames the pay gap on family structures: "Even as women have increasingly become breadwinners, however, they have not abdicated their role as family caregivers...Denied flexibility, many women are also denied raises and promotions, with the wage gap widening as a result."

Source: Frankie Santos Laanan and Soko Starobin (2010)

Women who attend elite colleges have lower starting salaries than women who go to safety schools

This comes from a study that compared "elite colleges" to schools with a 100-point lower SAT average.

By the mid-eighties, women who attended an elite school in 1976 were earning 7% less than women who attended safety schools.

Economist Robin Hanson suggested that "women at more elite colleges married richer classmate men, and so felt less need to earn money themselves." However, by late in life women who attended elite schools were earning 57% more than those who didn't.

Source: Stacy Dale and Alan B. Krueger (2011)

Men who attend elite colleges see an 11% boost to salary right away

Men immediately see a strong return from an elite degree. At the beginning of their career, these men earn 11% more than their peers at safety schools; by the end, they earn 83% more.

Source: Stacy Dale and Alan B. Krueger (2011)

View more at Business Insider