Evidence of Sex Discrimination: In Similar Populations, Men Are Paid Better Than Women

A bstract . Nationally women earn only 60 percent of the salary income earned by men. Numerous uncontrolled factors, however, might cause such sex-related differences in salary. In this study, certain factors usually uncontrolled are controlled with the choice of sample populations and by using multidimensional contingency table analysis. The samples consisted of male graduates of University of Hawaii College of Business (n = 311) and female graduates of that college (n = 94). In this comparison, women earned 81 percent of the salary earned by men, although, by the usual measures their backgrounds were similar. Factors of ethnicity, type of job taken, participation rate , and college major did not explain the salary differences between men and women. From this it is inferred that the difference arises from sex discrimination.