New research shows the pay gap between men and women does not disappear once they leave university, even with a PhD. In fact, immediately after obtaining their doctorate, women already start with an average disadvantage of 171 euros per month, which only increases throughout their career.
For the study, published in Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, researchers used salary data from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) to track more than 4,500 PhD researchers for up to 16 years after obtaining their doctorates.
It has long been known that there is a pay gap in the academic world. Many young researchers leave academia after completing their PhD—whether by choice or necessity. The commonly held assumption is that PhD graduates can earn more outside academia.
“In the long term, academics earn more within the university,” said Anne Maaike Mulders, sociologist at Radboud University and one of the authors of the article. “This pattern is particularly strong for women. They benefit from a relatively strong salary increase after leaving the university, but later see their income growth stagnate more than men. Because women leave the university faster and more often than men, income inequality is only exacerbated.”
According to the researchers, this shows that structural factors in society play a role.
“What we see in the data seems to be more in line with broader inequality in salaries and career opportunities. Wherever women end up, whether inside or outside the university, they systematically earn less than men with similar backgrounds,” concluded Mulders.
Data from Radbound University Nijmegen