Subject of degree and the gender wage differential: evidence from the UK and Germany

We show that controlling for subject of degree explains a significant part of the male/female gender wage differential amongst graduates. Using data from the labour force surveys of the United Kingdom and Germany, we find similar results in these two countries: subject of degree explains about 2–4% higher wages of male over female graduates after controlling for age, industry, region, part-time and public sector employment. This is a significant part (between 8 and 20%) of the overall male/female gender wage gap, and an even larger amount of the part explained by factors entered into wage equations (at around 24–30% of the explained component).