A Comparative Study of Sex Salary Differentials for Full-time Workers with a Degree in Science or Engineering

This thesis compares two datasets, the Science and Engineering Indicators 2006 (SEI)and the 1993 National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG), and looks at the impact of sexon full-time annual salary while controlling for different variables. The SEI provides a studybased on data from 1999 about the sex effects on salary, adds controls, and records thechanges in the effect of sex on salary. The SEI study finds after adding controls for workerheterogeneity and compensating wage differentials, women with bachelor's degrees earn11.0% less, women with master's degrees earn 8.0% less, and women with doctoral degreesearn 8.4% less than their male counterparts. My analysis of the NSCG finds after addingcontrols, women with bachelor's degrees earn 18.5% less, women with master?s degrees earn18.7% less, and women with doctoral degrees earn 15.3% less than their male counterparts.Additionally, in the NSCG and the SEI the field of degree impacted the sex effects the mostfor bachelor's and master's degree holders. This research is useful to study the differencebetween these datasets from different time periods. Specifically, the difference in the sexwage gap and in the changing importance of certain variables affecting the sex wage gap.