In almost all areas of science and engineering, men with a doctorate are paid more than women with the same level of education in the United States, according to the Science and Engineering Doctorates report, released in December 2017 by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the country’s leading research funding agency. The study examined the annual salaries of graduates who completed their doctorate in 2016 and were employed in fields related to life sciences, physics, mathematics, computer science, psychology, social sciences, and engineering. Analysis of the values obtained from all fields indicated that half the men received up to US$92,000 per year, while the same proportion of women earned up to US$74,000 (these were the median salaries, meaning that half of the sample received more and half received less). Mathematics and computer science, one of the areas with the highest salaries, had the greatest disparity: half of men received up to US$110,000 per year; roughly 22% more than the same proportion of women (US$90,000). The most egalitarian sector was health sciences, where the median salary was US$80,000 for both sexes (see graph).
Print issue
Current | Past
