Women face pay gap from the moment they graduate, study finds

Analysis of the latest published Department for Education figures have revealed that, while women are more likely to go into further education or employment, they earn less than men from the moment they graduate.

Recent figures from the Department for Education (DfE) from the financial year 2015-16 have found on average women take home about £1,600 less than male graduates a year after graduation.

This gender wage disparity continues to increase in the following years, which in part has been attributed to gender differences in part-time work.

Some key conclusions drawn from the data found:

• Three years after graduation, women typically earned £21,800, compared with £24,200 for men
• Five years post-graduation, the figures were £24,500 for women and £27,800 for men
• At 10 years, typical salaries were £27,100 for women and £35,100 for men

With respect to going into further study and employment, 87.6% of women were in further education or employment a year after graduating, in comparison to 84.6% of male graduates. The figures continued to evidence more women in education or employment than men three, five and 10 years after graduation.

In response to these figures, a spokeswoman for the Home Office stated: “No woman should be held back because of her gender.”

In spite of an apparent gender disparity, the Home Office affirmed: “we now have the lowest gender pay gap for full-time workers on record, and more women in work than ever before.”

On average women take home about £1,600 less than male graduates a year after graduation

The Home Office maintains that there is “more to do – that’s why the UK is one of the first countries in the world to require employers to publish their gender pay and gender bonus gap”.

As well as giving details about gender differences, the data from DfE also conveys disparities between different ethnic groups. It was found that up to five years after graduating, Chinese graduates had the highest earnings reaching up to £27,000.

This changes after 10 years following graduation, as graduates from “other Asian backgrounds” become the highest earners, averaging at £34,300.

Further conclusions from the data show that graduates in medicine and dentistry were the highest earners, while graduates with creative arts and design degrees had the lowest graduating salaries.

However, even in nursing, a course dominated by women students, men were still earning about £2,000 more just a year after graduation.

The gender pay gap also varied between institutions and subjects. In law, one of the more highly paid disciplines below medicine and dentistry, the study found that graduates from Oxford and Essex included women earning higher pay than men five years after starting work.

Gender pay gap aside, the figures also showed that the most highly paid graduates were those with high A-level grades, and those from universities in and around London and the south of England, especially London’s Imperial College, London School of Economics (LSE) and University College London, along with Oxford and Cambridge.