The gender pay gap may be narrowing, but women still earn 83 cents for every dollar a man earns for the same job, according to a new report. Those numbers vary depending on the industry, though, and research from career site Glassdoor breaks it down.
Photo by Helge V. Keitel.
Glassdoor crunched data from over 4000 full-time, Australian salaries submitted on their site. While their overall findings matched most other studies that find women are generally paid between 75-85 cents per dollar, less than men, they did find that the gap narrowed when they adjusted for job title and experience:
Applying controls for age, education and years of experience, the gender pay gap in column 2 shrinks to 12.0 percent for base pay and 12.6 percent for total compensation. Finally adding in a rich set of controls for company and job title, in column 5 we find an “adjusted” gender pay gap of 3.9 percent for base pay and 5.4 percent for total compensation.
Those numbers seem encouraging, however, a gap still exists, and in general, it’s worth noting that the meat of the issue goes beyond simply comparing job title to job title.
It’s useful to see just how much the gap widens or shrinks depending on industry, too. These are the US industries that Glassdoor found to have the largest pay gap, along with the percentage of higher male pay:
- Healthcare: 7.2%
- Insurance: 7.2%
- Transportation & Logistics: 6.8%
- Media: 6.6%
- Arts, Entertainment & Recreation: 6.6%
- Finance: 6.4%
These numbers are adjusted for population and for men and women with similar experience and background.
On the flip side, here are the industries with the smallest gap:
- Aerospace & Defence: 2.5%
- Agriculture & Forestry: 2.5%
- Biotech & Pharmaceuticals: 3.0%
- Travel & Tourism: 3.0%
- Restaurants, Bars & Food Service: 3.2%
- Education: 3.3%
The information is useful for anyone interested in the wage gap issue, but it’s also practical info for women who may want to be extra aware of the issue within their own industries.
Glassdoor has plenty of additional interesting data comparing the gap across countries and years of experience, among other factors. You can download the study for yourself at the link below.
Demystifying the Gender Pay Gap [Glassdoor]
Comments
7 responses to “The Industries Where The Gender Pay Gap Is Widest”
You used the unadjusted figure instead of the adjusted figure. 83 cents per dollar is for different jobs. It’s 96 cents per dollar for the same job.
shame engineering isn’t listed – wanted to know about that one.
In general, from what Ive seen there are so relatively few female engineers (or there used to be, its changing these days) that the ones that managed to make an impact usually did so because they were that damned good, and rose to the top regardless.
My sister lectures in engineering, and even when its a 95/5 split being female has never effected her career.
Everywhere I’ve worked as an engineer there’s been no difference between the women and the men in terms of salary. Some gov’t agencies you could even make a case for the women that are there having and advantage when it comes to promotions.
Don’t know about the consulting game though, I worked federal and manufacturing. There are certainly fewer woman in the manufacturing arena, but the federal services had a pretty high number of female engineers.
7.2% isn’t the biggest pay gap at all.
Female models gets paid 148% more than male models:
http://fortune.com/2015/07/15/male-models-pay/
That’s probably classed under arts…its an field average. I think male actors earn much more than females as well which counters the modelling profession
modeling is a job that pays, just like any other, and trying to dismiss it a gender gap where men suffer, is appalling hypocrisy.
This article even wants to propagate the nonsense gender wage gap that has been debunked time and again, for when both genders work the SAME job with the SAME hours, it vanishes.
Fact is men have traditionally worked much longer hours, such as overtime and weekends, in roles that pay better than traditional female jobs.
I think you’re reading too much into 0kensai0’s response. All he seems to be saying is that the averages are based on an industry, not a specific job within that industry.
Apart from that, good points.