To ask the Minister for Women what recent assessment she has made of the differences in earnings between male and female graduates during their working lives and the reasons for such differences. [120515]
The table shows recent analysis of the differences in earnings between male and female graduates in the UK.
| Average annual earnings of graduates, 1999–2000 | |||
| Age | Men (£) | Women (£) | Percentage by which average male earnings exceeded those with females |
| 20 to 24 | 16,738 | 14,592 | 14.7 |
| 25 to 29 | 23,302 | 20,154 | 15.6 |
| 30 to 34 | 30,448 | 24,939 | 22.1 |
| 35 to 39 | 36,948 | 27,774 | 33.2 |
| 40 to 44 | 36,949 | 26,691 | 38.4 |
| 45 to 49 | 36,696 | 26,113 | 40.5 |
| 50 to 54 | 38,153 | 26,549 | 43.7 |
| All ages under 60 | 32,555 | 23,630 | 37.8 |
Source:
Labour Force Survey, September 1999 to August 2000 (pooled data).
This is a complex area and recent surveys offer various opinions for such differences. Relevant factors which contribute to an earnings gap between men and women at the early stages of their careers include the different career choices made by men and women and their different academic backgrounds and skills. The largest recent survey of final year under graduates indicates that women have systematically lower expectations than men of the salaries they will earn, both in their first posts and five years later.
Earnings differentials widen with age. This can be explained to some extent by the differences in labour market participation rates, employment continuity records, longer hours worked by male than female full-time employees and women's greater likelihood of having worked part-time for some or all of their careers.