Non scholae, sed vitae discimus!: the importance of fields of study for the gender wage gap among Germany university graduates during labor market entry and the first years of their careere

This paper investigates the gender wage gap among German university graduates in their first job and five to six years into their careers. We find that women earn about 30% less than men at their first job and about 35% less after five to six years. Results from standard decomposition techniques show that 80% of the earnings gap in the first job can be attributed to differences in endowment of which between 74 and 78% are related to different fields of studies.