Exploring the gender gap in salary expectations

The Early Careers Survey reveals a significant gap in the salaries male and female respondents expect to earn after graduation - but what is really behind this difference?

As part of our annual Early Careers Survey, we explore graduates' salary expectations. Year after year, the findings reveal a consistent and significant gap in expectations between male and female respondents.

For instance, in the most recent survey, just over half (51%) of female respondents expected to earn more than £30,000 after graduation, compared to nearly two thirds (63%) of male respondents. Expectations diverge even further at the higher end of the scale, with male graduates twice as likely to anticipate earnings above £50,000.

While this disparity could be explained by a number of factors, in this article, we examine how differing career aspirations between genders may be the driving force.

The graduate gender pay gap

According to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data, in 2024, the difference in full-time earnings between men and women aged 18 to 39 was close to zero.1 However, a notable pay gap exists between male and female graduates, with the most recent Graduate Outcomes data suggesting that the median earnings of first-degree, male graduates in full-time employment was £2,000 higher than their female counterparts 15 months after graduation.2,3

And while women's median earnings tend to rise over time after graduation, research shows that men's earnings grow at a significantly faster rate - partly due to the impact of the so-called 'motherhood factor'.4 An 8% gap in favour of men one year after graduation extends to 11% three years after, 15% five years after and 31% ten years after.5

Although the motherhood factor can help explain the unequal returns that women experience in the years following graduation,6 it does not help to explain the pay gap between male and female graduates in their early careers.

Instead, this gap can largely be explained by differences in subject choice between men and women. Women are more likely to pursue degrees in fields associated with lower earning potential, such as the humanities. Women made up 63% of all humanities graduates in the 2021/22 Graduate Outcomes cohort. In contrast, only 22% of graduates in higher-earning fields like technology, engineering, and mathematics identified as female.7

This trend may help to explain why women tend to expect lower salaries after graduation, as they are likely to be cognisant of the fact that the degree they are studying for is less likely to lead to a high-paying role.

Childhood perceptions can shape outcomes

These subject choices are not made in a vacuum - they are often shaped by differing career aspirations that begin to form early in life. Research suggests that from a young age, boys and girls are influenced by societal expectations, role models, and perceptions of certain careers, which in turn guide their educational and professional pathways. Girls and boys routinely develop gendered ideas about jobs and careers by the age of eight.8

In 2006, the Women and Work commission concluded that women tend to be 'crowded into a narrow range of lower paying occupations…that do not make the best use of their skills.'9 And while boys' and girls' career aspirations have been shown to become more diverse over the past two decades, research indicates that certain patterns remain deeply entrenched. For instance, boys still tend to be drawn to technical and physical roles, while girls are more likely to aspire to caring and creative professions.10

Furthermore, even when women choose to pursue a career in STEM-related professions, gendered patters still emerge. Research suggests that boys were more likely than girls to want to become engineers or scientists when surveyed, while girls were more likely to indicate that they wanted to be a doctor or veterinarian.

This was just one of several striking findings to come out of the 2018 Drawing the Future survey, a piece of international research that asked children aged between 7 and 11-years-old to draw what they wanted to be when they were older. The results revealed clear gendered patterns in career aspirations, with boys being more likely to envision themselves in roles involving objects or technology, while girls tended to imagine careers focused on helping or working with people.

The authors suggested that traditional notions of femininity - particularly those emphasising nurturing or caring roles - may help explain these gendered patterns. Similarly, research from the ASPIRES project found that girls who define themselves as 'girly' were unlikely to aspire to a career in science, while those who do were more likely to describe themselves as 'not girly'.

These findings highlight how career aspirations are not only formed at a young age but are also closely intertwined with children's developing sense of gender identity, reinforcing traditional gender roles long before subject or career choices are formally made. Research also suggests that these preferences that boys and girls develop during their early childhoods tend to persist into their teens.

Moreover, these findings underscore the vital role that careers education can play in challenging entrenched gender stereotypes. However, given how early children begin to form gendered career preferences, it is essential that careers education is embedded in the curriculum from the earliest stages - starting as early as Key Stages 1 and 2.

A comprehensive international literature review by Hughes et al. found that interventions are most effective when tailored to individual needs from a young age, asserting that careers learning should begin in primary school and continue through adulthood.11

Careers education should begin early

The persistent gap in salary expectations between male and female graduates cannot be fully understood without considering the influence of gendered career aspirations. From early childhood, societal stereotypes and traditional notions of gender shape the way boys and girls perceive different professions, often steering them toward roles that align with these norms.

These entrenched patterns not only influence subject choices but also contribute to women's lower salary expectations, as many anticipate entering fields historically associated with lower financial returns. Addressing these disparities requires early, targeted careers education that challenges stereotypes and broadens young people's understanding of the full range of opportunities available to them.

Notes:

1. Gender pay gap in the UK, Office for National Statistics. 2024.
2. The graduate gender pay gap, Prospects Luminate, 2020.
3. Graduate Outcomes 2022/23: Summary Statistics, HESA, 2025.
4. The graduate gender pay gap, Prospects Luminate, 2020.
5. Graduate outcomes (LEO): Employment and earnings outcomes of higher education graduates by subject studied and graduate characteristics in 2016/17, Department for Education, 2019.
6. The ‘motherhood factor' refers to the measurable impact that taking career breaks due to childbirth and caregiving responsibilities has on a woman's lifetime earnings, career progression, and economic opportunities.
7. How graduate salaries vary by degree subject, Prospects Luminate, 2024.
8. Drawing the Future, Chambers et al, 2018.
9. Shaping a Fairer Future, Women and Work Commission, 2006.
10. Drawing the Future, Chambers et al, 2018.
11. Ibid.

Written by

Micha-Shannon Smith

Information analyst

Prospects Luminate