Abt Associates Finds Gender Equality in Engineering Salaries; Perceived Wage Gap Explained Primarily by Number of Years in the Workforce

Business Wire, Sept 3, 1999

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 3, 1999--

Past studies have reported that women in the United States earn approximately 72 cents for every dollar earned by men, but a recent study by Abt Associates Inc. found contrary results for the occupation of engineering. According to an issue brief prepared by Abt Associates for the National Science Foundation (NSF), women earn approximately 97 cents for every dollar earned by men within the profession of engineering.

The NSF issue brief, "How Large Is the Gap in Salaries of Male and Female Engineers?", discusses Abt Associates' analysis of data from NSF surveys in 1995 of approximately 1.6 million college graduates in 16 engineering occupations. The researchers focused on U.S. residents who were employed full-time as engineers and controlled for level of highest degree, employment sector, geographic region, engineering specialty, type of work, and years since the baccalaureate (as a measure of years in the workforce).

Although the salary gap in engineering initially appeared to be 13 cents (i.e., women earned 87 cents for every dollar earned by men), when the number of years in the workforce was controlled, the data showed that the estimated difference in annual salaries between men and women fell to only 3 cents. In other words, salaries of female and male engineers with similar years of experience are virtually the same. When the other variables were added to the analysis, the estimated difference was lowered only another 1 cent.

"These findings raise the question of why there are fewer older women in the engineering workforce," notes Abt Associates' Bhavya Lal, lead author of the study. "Not only were fewer female graduates entering the workforce 30 years ago, but also they may have dropped out of the workforce at somewhat higher rates then their male counterparts, perhaps as the result of an actual or perceived glass ceiling. Further research is needed to answer these questions."

Copies of the issue brief, How Large Is the Gap in Salaries of Male and Female Engineers?, are available on the World Wide Web at http://abtassociates.com/reports/employment-download.html or http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/issuebrf/ib99352.htm or by calling NSF at (301) 947-2722.

Abt Associates Inc. is a private, employee-owned company that does social, demographic, economic and policy research, as well as business research and consulting and clinical trials. Founded in 1965 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Dr. Clark Abt, the company has achieved an international reputation for using scientific methods of measurement to help solve social and business problems and guide government policy decisions. Its regular staff of 900 employees is located in two Massachusetts offices in Cambridge and Amherst, and in offices in Bethesda, Maryland; Washington, D.C.; Chicago, Illinois; Cairo, Egypt; and Johannesburg, South Africa.

Note to Editors: The complete name of the company is correctly represented as "Abt Associates Inc." (upper and lower case, without a comma). It may also be represented as "Abt Associates," but not "ABT," "Abt," or "ABT Associates." For more information on Abt Associates, please visit our website at http://www.abtassociates.com.