Does tertiary education pay off?

What is it about?

Throughout the last decades the German health sector saw substantive inroads of women in the male-dominated medical profession and a slight increase of personnel with tertiary education in the so far feminized and semiprofessional occupations of nursing and elderly care. Effects of these trends on the income levels for the male and female employees in the expanding health sector are still under-researched. Based on data of the German Socio-Economic Panel from 2010-2013 the authors investigate income levels and higher education pay-offs for the occupational groups of doctors, nurses and elderly care workers. Results show for all three occupations that women earn significantly less and get less return on education. The gender gap is less pronounced within the profession of doctors than the semi-professional occupation of nurses. The occupational field of elderly care stands out with low wage levels for both men and women but comparatively high returns on education for male jobholders. These differences indicate the need to focus further research on occupationspecific structures in order to better understand the reasons for unequal pay of equally qualified women and men.

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