Women’s annual salaries were the closest to men’s in the field of education, excluding math and science education, and farthest apart among those with bachelor’s degrees in the physical sciences. The higher the degree obtained, the smaller the gender disparity in pay. Nevertheless, female doctorate recipients, over all, earned 75 percent of what their male counterparts did in 2013. Women with doctorates earned $5,000 more a year than did men with only bachelor’s degrees, but $9,000 less than men with only master’s degrees. Female doctorate recipients in the arts and humanities came closest to matching their male counterparts’ salaries. That field also yielded the lowest salaries earned by any doctorate recipients.
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Bachelor’s degree
| Life sciences | 712,000 | 657,000 | 48.0% | $52,000 | $40,000 | 76.9% |
| Physical sciences | 281,000 | 138,000 | 32.9% | $68,000 | $40,000 | 58.8% |
| Mathematics and computer science | 1,051,000 | 450,000 | 30.0% | $80,000 | $54,000 | 67.5% |
| Psychology and social sciences | 1,687,000 | 1,958,000 | 53.7% | $56,000 | $38,000 | 67.9% |
| Engineering | 1,724,000 | 275,000 | 13.8% | $86,000 | $70,000 | 81.4% |
| Health | 404,000 | 1,734,000 | 81.1% | $67,000 | $55,000 | 82.1% |
| Science and math teacher education | 89,000 | 93,000 | 51.1% | $51,000 | $36,000 | 70.6% |
| Other teacher education | 72,000 | 117,000 | 61.9% | $43,000 | $40,000 | 93.0% |
| Management/administration | 357,000 | 210,000 | 37.0% | $75,000 | $50,000 | 66.7% |
| Arts and humanities | 223,000 | 176,000 | 44.1% | $56,000 | $44,000 | 78.6% |
| All fields | 7,275,000 | 6,156,000 | 45.8% | $70,000 | $47,000 | 67.1% |
Master’s degree
| Life sciences | 121,000 | 153,000 | 55.8% | $65,000 | $50,000 | 76.9% |
| Physical sciences | 96,000 | 49,000 | 33.8% | $75,000 | $58,000 | 77.3% |
| Mathematics and computer science | 442,000 | 184,000 | 29.4% | $100,000 | $75,000 | 75.0% |
| Psychology and social sciences | 316,000 | 542,000 | 63.2% | $65,000 | $45,000 | 69.2% |
| Engineering | 569,000 | 124,000 | 17.9% | $100,000 | $87,000 | 87.0% |
| Health | 199,000 | 809,000 | 80.3% | $83,000 | $65,000 | 78.3% |
| Science and math teacher education | 74,000 | 134,000 | 64.4% | $56,000 | $50,000 | 89.3% |
| Other teacher education | 291,000 | 619,000 | 68.0% | $54,000 | $50,000 | 92.6% |
| Management/administration | 814,000 | 366,000 | 31.0% | $103,000 | $84,000 | 81.6% |
| Arts and humanities | 73,000 | 70,000 | 49.0% | $59,000 | $45,000 | 76.3% |
| All fields | 3,381,000 | 3,501,000 | 50.9% | $84,000 | $58,000 | 69.0% |
Doctoral degree
| Life sciences | 153,000 | 101,000 | 39.8% | $94,000 | $70,000 | 74.5% |
| Physical sciences | 135,000 | 32,000 | 19.2% | $104,000 | $80,000 | 76.9% |
| Mathematics and computer science | 55,000 | 15,000 | 21.4% | $105,000 | $90,000 | 85.7% |
| Psychology and social sciences | 111,000 | 106,000 | 48.8% | $91,000 | $72,000 | 79.1% |
| Engineering | 143,000 | 23,000 | 13.9% | $117,000 | $100,000 | 85.5% |
| Health | 29,000 | 41,000 | 58.6% | $109,000 | $80,000 | 73.4% |
| Science and math teacher education | 3,000 | 9,000 | 75.0% | n/a | $72,000 | n/a |
| Other teacher education | 31,000 | 42,000 | 57.5% | $78,000 | $68,000 | 87.2% |
| Management/administration | 16,000 | 6,000 | 27.3% | $102,000 | n/a | n/a |
| Arts and humanities | 17,000 | 10,000 | 37.0% | $65,000 | $62,000 | 95.4% |
| All fields | 741,000 | 413,000 | 35.8% | $100,000 | $75,000 | 75.0% |
All degrees
| Life sciences | 985,000 | 910,000 | 48.0% | $60,000 | $45,000 | 75.0% |
| Physical sciences | 512,000 | 218,000 | 29.9% | $78,000 | $50,000 | 64.1% |
| Mathematics and computer science | 1,548,000 | 648,000 | 29.5% | $86,000 | $60,000 | 69.8% |
| Psychology and social sciences | 2,124,000 | 2,639,000 | 55.4% | $60,000 | $40,000 | 66.7% |
| Engineering | 2,437,000 | 422,000 | 14.8% | $90,000 | $75,000 | 83.3% |
| Health | 1,465,000 | 3,078,000 | 67.8% | $100,000 | $60,000 | 60.0% |
| Science and math teacher education | 167,000 | 237,000 | 58.7% | $53,000 | $42,000 | 79.2% |
| Other teacher education | 394,000 | 778,000 | 66.4% | $53,000 | $50,000 | 94.3% |
| Management/administration | 1,187,000 | 582,000 | 32.9% | $95,000 | $72,000 | 75.8% |
| Arts and humanities | 313,000 | 257,000 | 45.1% | $58,000 | $45,000 | 77.6% |
| All fields | 12,693,000 | 10,865,000 | 46.1% | $80,000 | $53,000 | 66.3% |
Note: Data cover individuals in the United States and its territories who were less than 76 years old on February 1, 2013, and who earned bachelor’s degrees or higher in science and engineering fields, and in some non-science and -engineering fields, like the humanities, before January 1, 2012. A sample size of 115,152 was relied upon to represent a population of 28,950,000. The total numbers of men and women surpass the components because some smaller fields are not listed separately. Numbers are rounded to the nearest 1,000. Salary responses were considered even if the annual salary was provided for less than 12 months. Data are the most current available and are from the survey cycle 2013, as of February 24, 2015. The abbreviation “n/a” indicates that information was suppressed because of reliability considerations. More data are can be found here. Questions or comments on the Almanac should be sent to the Almanac editor.
Source: National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System</small></p>