Men dominate most lucrative college degrees, Bankrate study reveals

investmentnews.com:

As the new academic year gets underway, a new report reveals a gender gap among the most lucrative degrees.

Of those who hold the top 20 highest-earning bachelor’s degrees, 78% are men and 22% are women according to the analysis from Bankrate.com which looked at the median income of 151 majors.

Those degrees focused on STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – are dominant in the degrees most likely to lead to roles with the highest wages, while all of the majors in the top 20 have median incomes of at least $85,000 with the top six nudging into six digits.

While men hold the largest share of the top 20 by far, women lead for Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration (44%), and Health and Medical Preparatory Programs (54%) but they do not make up more than one third of holders for any of the other majors in the top 20.

“Despite making progress in recent decades, men continue to disproportionately dominate college majors that lead to the highest salaries in the workforce,” said Bankrate analyst Alex Gailey. “The fact that the male-female gender gap in lucrative college majors remains so vast after decades of women outnumbering men on college campuses suggests that women are still playing catch-up.”

Women hold a larger share of degree majors that tend to mean lower wages.

These include Early Childhood Education (96% female; median salary: $43,000), Communication Disorders Sciences and Services (93%; median salary: $57,000), Family and Consumer Services (90%; median salary: $45,000), Elementary Education (90%; median salary: $48,400), and Nursing (89%; median salary $70,000).

“Women continue to be overrepresented in college degrees that result in lower wages compared to men,” added