Cluster-Seminar Öffentliche Finanzen und Lebenslagen

We provide first evidence of the gaps in university graduate wages between gender minorities and cisgender men, using large linked administrative and survey data on graduates from UK universities. Gender minority graduates, as well as cisgender women, earn over eight percent lower wages than cisgender men in their first destinations. More than half of those gaps can be explained by university and subject sorting, where gender minority students select themselves into humanities and out of STEM. By contrast, demographic differences, such as ethnicity, disability, parental education, or pre-university location, account for negligible shares of the gaps. Nearly half of the wage gaps remain unexplained. These findings suggest that wage gaps arise very early, and educational choices are their important drivers.