Salaries for female graduates have fallen behind those of their male counterparts, new figures from the Higher Education Statistics Authority (Hesa) indicate.
Although they achieved the same level of qualifications, first class female graduates had a median salary of £25,000, which was £2,000 lower than men.
The annual survey by Hesa saw graduates asked about their employment status 15 months after they had left university. More than 355,000 graduates responded.
With 60% of graduates in paid employment after finishing their degree courses in the academic year of 2020-21, the survey pinpointed a trend of rising employment among new graduates. The figure represented a four percentage point rise from last year and was the highest since 2017.
The results revealed there was a higher proportion of men earning the top graduate salaries. A higher proportion of men featured in every salary band above £30,000, whereas below this level women outnumbered men.
The academic year of 2020-21 was heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, although Hesa found there was “no major changes in response rate” and that 2020/21 graduates were “more likely than 2019/20 graduates to be in full-time work and less likely to be unemployed or in full-time further study”.
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Additionally, no notable changes in the skill level at which graduates are employed was found.
The imbalance between male and female graduate salary levels was strongly criticised by Kate Nightingale, the director of communications, campaigns and research at Young Women’s Trust, an organisation campaigning for equal pay. She told The Times that “pay inequality is there right from the start of working life and only grows over time. Women are putting in the effort to study but not getting the payoff at the end.”
She added that among the reasons for this were young women entering lower paid jobs and sectors and not progressing as quickly. “Discriminatory attitudes are still alive and well,” she said.
Alesha De-Freitas, the head of policy at the Fawcett Society, said it was down to organisations to be more proactive in addressing the imbalance. She said: “Employers must do more to ensure their hiring and pay policies do not disadvantage women and we urgently need to see more employers publishing action plans. We have a stubborn gender pay gap in the UK, which harms women and harms our economy.”
Medicine and dentistry offered graduates the highest salary when they started full-time work. Those who gained a first had a median salary of £35,000, closely followed by veterinary science students at £32,000.
Former design, and creative and performing arts students entering full-time employment had a median salary of £22,500, the lowest among all subjects in the survey.
A spokesperson for the Department for Education said it was urging all organisations to take steps to address the gender imbalance in pay.
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They said: “To help close the gap even further, we have announced [in March’s Budget] a childcare revolution with 30 hours’ free childcare for children over the age of nine months.”
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