Gender Gap Expands As Men And Women Age, Data Shows

[boston bean]

Women are paid less than men in their first jobs out of college -- 5 percent less, according to the American Association of University Women -- but new data from Payscale.com, a website that collects compensation data shows that the gender wage gap dramatically expands over the course of employees' careers.

Based on information culled from 1.6 million user profiles, Today reported, the Payscale numbers show that women's earnings plateau at $60,000 per year on average at about age 39, while men's salaries continue to grow until age 48, reaching $95,000 per year on average.

However, the Payscale findings weren't all dire. For one thing, they indicated that between ages 22 and 30, the rate of women's salary increases briefly surpasses that of men, Catherine Rampell reported in the New York Times' Economix blog.

This data -- along with the results of an often cited 2010 study showing that single women under 30 outearned their male peers by 8 to 20 percent in certain urban areas -- seems to corroborate claims made by high-profile researchers and authors that women are poised to surpass men. Liza Mundy, author of "The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love and Family" wrote in a recent TIME cover story based on the book,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/04/gender-gap-expands_n_1569168.html