Reinforcing the widely held belief that women scientists face inequalities in compensation, a recent National Science Foundation survey reveals that female Ph.D. researchers earn less than their male colleagues in every field of endeavor and employment sector.
NSF conducted the survey, scheduled for release later this year, in 1989. The agency surveyed 73,611 Ph.D. scientists with varying levels of experience, with an overall response rate of 55 percent. The findings show that the median annual salary for a female Ph.D. in chemistry was 19 percent less than what a man earned. Similarly, women biologists pulled in 22.4 percent less than men in the same field, while male physicists earned 21.4 percent more than their female counterparts.
Moreover, NSF found that the median annual salary paid women Ph.D. scientists was between 20 percent and 25.2 percent less than what was paid men in a variety of employment settings: industry, government, hospitals, ...
