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Education
<br />As a rule, earnings increase as years of education increase for both men and
<br />women. While more education is an effective tool for increasing earnings
<br />(Asian American women and men had the highest college attainment levels
<br />of any racial or ethnic group in 2015, according to the U.S. Department of
<br />Education), it is not an effective tool against the gender pay gap. At every
<br />level of academic achievement, women's median earnings are less than
<br />men's median earnings (Figure 6). In some cases, the gender pay gap is
<br />larger at higher levels of education.
<br />Across all racial and ethnic groups, American women now earn more col-
<br />lege and postgraduate degrees than men (U.S. Department of Education,
<br />2016). But education does not eliminate the gender pay gap. In Graduating
<br />to a Pay Gap: The Earnings of Women and Men One Year after College Graduation,
<br />FIGURE 6
<br />Median Weekly Earnings, by Level of Education and Gender, 2015
<br />51,800
<br />51,600
<br />51,400
<br />51,200
<br />51,000
<br />5800
<br />5600
<br />5400
<br />5200
<br />50
<br />Less than a high
<br />school diploma
<br />51,637:
<br />51,304
<br />51,204
<br />5883 5975
<br />5759
<br />5�.
<br />664
<br />5586
<br />High school
<br />graduate
<br />Some college or
<br />associate degree
<br />Bachelor's
<br />degree
<br />• Women ® Men XX% Women's earnings as a percentage of men's earnings
<br />Advanced
<br />degree
<br />Note: Based on median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers, ages 25 and older, 2015 annual
<br />averages
<br />Source. U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, reported in U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Bureau of Labor
<br />Statistics, 2015 Usual Weekly Earnings Summary, Economic News Release USDL-15-0111, Table 9
<br />14
<br />Parenting and time away from work
<br />Becoming a parent is widely acknowledged as a personal choice that affects
<br />careers, but it produces different professional outcomes for women and
<br />men. Taking time away from the workforce or cutting back hours, both
<br />more common scenarios for mothers than fathers, hurts earnings (Bertrand
<br />et al., 2010). Many employers and industries still prioritize long, continuous,
<br />traditional work hours rather than flexible schedules, a preference that tends
<br />to put women with children at a disadvantage (Goldin, 2014). AAUW's
<br />Behind the Pay Gap report found that 10 years after college graduation, 23
<br />percent of mothers were out of the workforce, and 17 percent worked part
<br />time. Among fathers, only 1 percent were out of the workforce, and only 2
<br />percent worked part time (AAUW Educational Foundation, 2007).
<br />Many stay-at-home and part-time working mothers will eventually decide
<br />to return to the full-time workforce, and when they do they may encounter
<br />a "motherhood penalty" that extends beyond the actual time out of the
<br />workforce. Experimental studies have documented that employers are less
<br />likely to hire mothers (including mothers who never left the workforce)
<br />compared with child -free women, and when employers do make an offer to
<br />a mother, they offer her a lower salary than they do other women (Correll
<br />& Benard, 2007; Kricheli-Katz, 2012). Fathers, in contrast, do not suffer a
<br />penalty compared with other working men. Many fathers actually receive
<br />higher wages after having a child, known as the "fatherhood bonus" (Kille-
<br />wald, 2013; Budig, 2014).
<br />Gender discrimination and bias
<br />Not all of the gender pay gap can be "explained away" by choices such
<br />as college ma;or, occupation, work hours, and time out of the workforce.
<br />Discrimination and bias against women in the workplace are also culprits in
<br />the pay gap.
<br />Each year, thousands of sex discrimination cases are brought before the
<br />federal Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC), and many
<br />of these complaints are decided or settled in favor of the person who filed
<br />the charge (EEOC, 2015). Thanks in part to persistent sex discrimination,
<br />
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