The gender wage gap among PhDs in the UK

This article analyses the gender wage gap (GWG) among PhD graduates in the UK 42 months after their graduation in 2004-5. We find a sizeable overall GWG of 19 log percentage points, which is explained by a large wage premium for men outside academia compared to women and men in academia. The GWG in academia is small in comparison. Whilst the GWG outside academia is very high six months after graduation and remains largely unaltered, the GWG inside academia doubles in the following three years. The Oaxaca decomposition suggests that for this relatively homogeneous group the GWG cannot be explained by differences in endowments (university and employment characteristics). We find stark differences in wage patterns between the fields of study and a strongly increasing coefficient effect for higher quantiles.