Five years after graduating women will earn one fifth less than men

Looks like the student loans were worth it gals


Top earning female grads are paid 18 per cent less than men five years after leaving uni, says the latest research on our archaic pay gap.

Five years after graduation women earn an average of £31,000, a massive £6,500 less than men who finished their degrees at the same time. The report, which came from the Department of Education, analysed 237,000 people who graduated in 2008/9 and found that in the first year after graduation both sexes earn the same on average in the lowest wage band – £11,500. In the middle bracket men earned £17,500 while women earned £1,000 less. In the top band men earned £24,500, £2,000 more than women.

Two years later though the gap had widened significantly, with women earning almost 15 per cent less – £26,500 to men’s £31,000. At five years after graduation the gap was even wider. Men in the top wage band are now earning £37,500 to women’s £31,000, while in the lowest wage band men are earning £20,000 compared to £17,500 for women.

The biggest gap were in the technology oil and gas industries, which also happen to be the best paid. The report said: “At each of one, three and five years after graduation, male median earnings are greater than female median earnings.”

A Government spokesman said: “No woman should be held back just because of her gender. We now have the lowest gender pay gap on record, and we are working to get more women into the top jobs at our biggest companies.

“But we know there’s more to do – that’s why we are requiring employers to publish their gender pay and gender bonus gap for the first time from April and we are working to get more girls studying science, technology, engineering and maths subjects so that they get into more lucrative professions when they are older.”