How can we close the gender pay gap? - Networking Lab

Moving forward from the Crowdsourcing Lab on education in Macomb County, I decided to deep dive further into the topic surrounding the trend of how many people got an education for job security. Only this time, I have compared another set of data from the Census Bureau regarding educational attainment, the highest education an individual has received.

Some things to note about educational attainment of 2021:

• 1.3 Million people acquired a Bachelor’s Degree

• 1.6 Million people got some college education

I sourced additional information to aid in my study on Macomb County are from Data USA

• 675,448 of those who acquired a Bachelor’s Degree were Women

• 604.856 of those who acquired a Bachelor’s Degree were Men

It was an insightful additional source because of the various line and bar graphs which helped me comprehend visually whereas the Census Bureau can get complicated.

Having this information motivates me to beg the question(s); Why do more women seek a college education than men? Does it help close the gender pay gap?

First, we need to establish the data we already know. Last week, my partners Gracie Murray, Maddie Siewert, and I crowdsourced summarized data based upon further education in Macomb County, what type of classes suit students schedule’s more, and if they had ever worked in trades. Below are our three graphs conceived from survey data.

After some more research, I have concluded that a Bachelor’s Degree does help decrease the gender pay gap. According to Pew Research, the gap closed from 69%-79% in 2022 for Women with a Bachelor’s Degree. It is noted that there is a trend that with more additional education they receive, the increased range of employment in higher-paying positions open up for them such as managerial, business and finance, legal, and computer, science and engineering (STEM) occupations.

Of course, every person’s situation is different in what they choose to do with their careers and abilities, But there is clear evidence that acquiring a 4-year Bachelor’s degree can help significantly with acquiring a higher paying job rather than not having one at all. It opens the gateway to feel truly valued within the workplace, allows for Salary pay rather than hourly, perks such as Healthcare and 401K, among other things. It can all start with a simple question. How would you like your future to look?

MOCK POST:

I would either create a FaceBook Post or Twitter post to upload my graphs with my text on top.

I would reuse my Headline as my main caption and then put the information below or link my website.