Gender equality exists in engineering salaries

Resource, Dec 1999

Although past studies have reported that women in the t nited States earn about 72 cents for each dollar earned hy men, a recent survey by Abt Associates Inc. found closer salary equality in the engineering profession.

In a brief prepared for the National Science Foundation (NSF) this fall. Abt Associates reported that women engineers earn about 97 cents for each dollar earned by their male counterparts. The NSF issue brief, titled How Large is the Gap in Salaries of Male and Female Engineers? analyzes data from NSF 1995 surveys of nearly 1.6 million college graduates in 16 engineering occupations. Researchers focused on US residents who were full-time engineers.

Although the salary gap in engineering first appeared to he 13 cents. the difference dropped to

3 cents when the numher of years in the workforce was considered.

Abt Associates of Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a privately-owned company that conducts social, demographic, economic and policy research.

See the full brief at: www.nsf.gov/she srs.issuebrf.ib99352.htm.