Bloomberg BusinessWeek Reports Widening Wage Gap between Men and Women MBA Grads
Female graduates from top MBA programs average 93 cents for every dollar their male classmates earn, down from a high of 98 cents in 2002, according to new research out this month from Bloomberg Businessweek. According to the magazine’s biennial survey of MBA graduates, women earn less than men at about a third of the top U.S. business schools.
Female graduates from the class of 2012 at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, for example, earned 86 percent of male wages, and those at Stanford Graduate School of Business earned 79 percent, Bloomberg BW reports.
The gap numbers at the beginning can sometimes be accounted for by differences in grades, course selection and the fields male and female graduates choose, according to Marianne Betrand, an economics professor at University of Chicago Booth School of Business. “What is much more striking is how much that gap grows over time,” Bertrand told Bloomberg BW, citing studies on compensation among female Booth MBA grads.
Bloomberg BW cited numerous sources revealing that pay disparity between men and women is greatest in the finance sector. For example, 2010 census data showed the largest gender pay gaps to be among insurance agents, personal advisors and securities sales agents.
Catalyst, a nonprofit organization focused on expanding opportunities for women in business, published research the same year showing that female MBAs were paid, on average, $4,600 less in their first jobs than men, and that the gap widens to $30,000 by mid-career. “Women’s careers lag behind men from day one,” Anna Beninger, a senior associate in Catalyst’s research department, told Bloomberg BW.
In part, the pay discrepancies between male and female MBA grads also reflect shifts in career choices female MBAs are making. Women have left the finance sector – where the highest salaries are found – in greater numbers, which drives down average female salaries.
“There’s a tremendous realization among women MBAs that you don’t have to march lockstep into banking,” Janet Hanson, CEO of women’s networking group 85 Broads, told Bloomberg BW. “The industry is changing, and I think a lot of people are overwhelmed by the regulatory environment and the uncertainties in the industry. That perhaps makes the risk-reward trade-off very different,” she continued.
Career services directors at top schools concur, noting that female MBAs are attracted increasingly to the technology, consumer products, consulting and entrepreneurship sectors.
Read the complete Bloomberg BW article, “At Elite Schools, the Gender Wage Gap Widens.”
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