Motivation, expectations and the gender pay gap for UK graduates

Abstract

Focussing on recent UK graduates, a gender wage gap of 12% is found as well as significant gender differences in the subject of graduation, sector of employment and feminisation of the job. Women also are more altruistic and less career oriented than men, character traits that are less rewarded by employers. Two third of women agree that they expect to take career breaks for family reasons and more than 1/3rd of men expect their partner to sacrifice her career for childrearing responsibilities. These conservative attitudes affect womenÕs wages even at an early stage of their career and are the single most important determinants of the gender wage gap.gender wage gap, attitude