A recent study has shown that while the income gap between men and women is decreasing, the gap still exists, regardless of investment in education.

According to a new interactive charting tool from Fusion, a television and digital network, the average man who drops out of college makes more money in his lifetime than the average female with a four-year degree.

A man who spends $40,000 on his education before he drops out will make an average of $1.6 million by the time he is 44 years old. However, a woman who graduates with a B.A. in science, spending $95,000 on her education, will only make an average of $1.3 million in that same time, according to the chart.

Fusion’s chart also shows that a man with a bachelor’s degree in the arts makes more money on average than a woman with a bachelor’s degree in science. Assuming they both spend $95,000 on their education, the chart says that the male with the art degree will make an average salary of $92,000 a year by the time he turns 44, while the female with the science degree will only make an average of $72,000 a year.

Felix Salmon, a journalist at Fusion who worked with the survey company PayScale to create this chart, said via email that these results surprised him.

“I thought the returns to education were bigger than the differences between men and women,” he said.

Christopher Faricy, an assistant professor of political science at Syracuse University, said this inequality is an ingrained part of our society that is fading, albeit slowly. There are multiple social and sociological factors in our culture that contribute to this disparity, he said.

One such factor, Faricy said, is the “marriage penalty,” wherein women make less money after marriage while men make more. This is explained, he said, by the fact that most women still bear the majority of the household duties in a marriage. He also said certain careers, including nursing and teaching, usually pay less than most and have been “disproportionately held by women,” although this is gradually changing.

Faricy added that there is still blatant pay discrimination in the workplace. Citing President Barack Obama’s passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, which fights gender-based pay discrimination, he explained that women with the same, sometimes even more, responsibilities as men in the workplace can make less than them.

While students had varying reactions to the news, the dominant feeling seemed to be disappointment. Matthew Pevear, a senior art and photography major, said that he feels that these inequalities are “not ideal.”

But, he claimed that he was not shocked by the news, stating: “We live in a patriarchal society that is really male-dominated.”

Another student, Rae Tobey, a junior public health major, said that while she found the new statistics to be “a little unfair,” she wouldn’t “let it discourage (her) from going into a certain major,” if she decides to change fields. She also said she believes society is “heading in the right direction,” as “women aren’t afraid to go after degrees in science” and there are an increasing number of women in the workforce.

Faricy pointed out that some current trends in higher education already point to a more equal society. He said that “in four-year institutions more women (are) enrolling and graduating than men.” Also, more women are enrolling and graduating in professional and medical schools, Faricy said.

As for the future, Faricy said he believes that shifts in household dynamics, business efforts to include and promote women and changes in public policy will be indicators of a decreasing income gap.

Published on September 11, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Delaney: dovanwey@syr.edu