Abigail Hess, CNBC
Economists estimate that the gender pay gap — the gap between the median salaries of all working men and women in the U.S. — is about 80 cents earned by women for every dollar earned by a man. When CNBC Make It spoke with economists about the causes behind the pay gap, several pointed to education. Today, women outnumber men at all levels of education, but many pursue degrees in traditionally lower-paying fields. But according to new research from Carolyn Sloane, an assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside, and Erik Hurst and Dan Black, professors at the University of Chicago, women are slowly shifting to higher-paying majors.
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