Women college graduates from many of the nation’s best schools earn 19% less than the male graduates, according to a new analysis.
The average man, including undergraduates and post-graduates, earns $59,000 just after graduation while the average woman earns $48,000, BusinessStudent.com found by using U.S. Department of Education data about the 117 top schools, as defined by the U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings.
Only three of the schools studied send female graduates off with higher salaries on average than male graduates. At 58 of the schools, women make 10% to 20% less than men. At 10 schools, women make over 30% less than men.
The analysis did not take into account whether women graduates, based on their majors, chose careers that typically pay less than others. However, it has been proven that, controlled for occupation, there is still a wage gap between men and women because of discrimination.
By far, the school with the largest wage gap after graduation is Brigham Young University, where women make 57% less than men. At Princeton University and Wake Forest University, female graduates make over 35% less than male graduates. Most Ivy League schools and other prestigious universities like Harvard, Duke, Brown, and Stanford are also on the list of schools with the largest pay gaps.
Among schools where women graduates earn more than men is Clark University, where men make 6.3% less than women. But Clark University graduates of both genders make only $34,550 on average, far less than the $53,000 average among top schools.
Stevens Institute and Yale University round out the top three colleges in this analysis with the smallest wage gap in graduates.
Despite the pay gap, Harvard, Stanford, and MIT are still the best schools for maximizing earning potential. Female graduates from those three schools make, on average, $80,700 versus.
On the other end of the spectrum, graduates of Brigham Young, Grinnell College, and Colorado College earn just $31,400 on average. The rankings do not take into account cost of living in each location.