Women graduates earn less than their male counterparts

Even before women graduates take career breaks to care for children, they are earning significantly less than men.

Women graduates earn substantially less than men

The salary gap between males and females widens quickly in the first few years after graduation from an undergraduate degree, with males soon earning nearly 10 per cent more than their female counterparts.

New federal government data shows that newly-minted male graduates in 2017 earned a median salary of $62,600 in full-time work, 4.3 per cent more than females at $60,000. But by the time the same cohort had spent three years in the workforce the men were earning a median of $80,000, 9.4 per cent more than women at $73,100.

The figures, in the 2020 Graduate Outcomes Survey – Longitudinal from the Department of Education, Skills and Employment, found that disciplines in which men outpaced women the most in their earnings three years after graduation included architecture and the built environment (20 per cent more), health services and support (11 per cent more), social work and nursing (9 per cent more), and business and management (8 per cent more).

Creative arts is one of the few discipline areas where women earn more (by a margin of 4 per cent) three years after graduation.

In some areas, including computing and information systems, and engineering, women and men essentially earn the same three years out from their bachelor degree.

The report said previous research pointed to one of the reasons for the graduate salary gap between women and men being fact that females tended to graduate from fields of education in which salaries are less, such as creative arts, while men chose higher paid fields such as engineering.

However this does not explain the disparities between female and male salaries within disciplines, especially for young graduates only three years out of university where child care responsibilities (often the domain of the female) are not yet generally affecting women’s careers.

For postgraduate degree holders, the salary gap between women and men is even larger. Just after graduation, men earn a median $93,900, 20 per cent more than females ($78,000). Three years after graduation men are earning a median $109,000, 19 per cent more than women at $91,800.

“The gender gap in salaries among postgraduate coursework graduates persists across all study areas, in particular, in medicine, business and management, health services and support and science and mathematics,” the report says.

The report also says that 90.1 per cent of graduates who want a full-time job have one three years after their bachelor degree.

For postgraduates, the employment outcomes are even better. Three years after their degree is completed 94.1 per cent of those who want a full-time job have one.

Individual universities vary in the proportion of their graduates who find full-time work. The Australian Catholic University is the best performer, with full-time employment rates of 95.5 per cent for bachelor degree graduates, and 98.6 per cent for postgraduate degree holders, three years after graduation.

The survey does not show the impact of COVID-19 on the graduate job market. The data on employment outcomes three years after graduation was drawn from over 40,000 survey responses and all but 5 per cent of them were completed before COVID-19 economic shutdowns began in March this year.