The Earnings Gap by Occupation and Educational Attainment: Findings from Census 2000

Jennifer Cheeseman Day, U.S. Census Bureau
Nikki L. Graf, U.S. Census Bureau
Kurt J. Bauman, U.S. Census Bureau

The earnings gap between men and women persists. Though the gap has narrowed, women continue to earn less than their male counterparts. This difference translates to a sizable monetary loss throughout a woman’s lifetime. Using data from Census 2000, this paper examines female-to-male earnings ratios within occupation, by educational attainment. The large sample size allows a thorough look at the current status of the earnings gap. We examine the relative numbers of women and men within occupations to assess how the earnings gap varies by women’s representation in occupations. We also disaggregate the population by age, to determine whether different age distributions of men and women within occupations explain the differences in earnings ratios. Finally, we stratify occupations by the average earnings of their workers, to consider whether the earnings gap between men and women is greater in higher-paying occupations than in lower-paying fields of work.