By Jennifer Merritt
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Some might say the solution is simple: Advance your education, learn new skills, impress the boss, and you'll add a few digits to your salary. In fact, when it comes to education, women are the stronger sex, outnumbering men who earned associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees during the 2004-2005 school year, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).
And the return on that education investment is high. Women who graduated from college earned about 76 percent more than women with just a high school diploma, according to 2004 data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Finding your focus
"The first thing you have to do is figure out what your values are, and understand that the ways to higher pay are about trade-offs," says Warren Farrell, Ph.D., the San Diego-based author of Why Men Earn More: The Startling Truth Behind the Pay Gap and What Women Can Do About It (Amacom, 2005). "The road to higher pay is a toll road; the discovery is finding out which tolls are worth it and which aren’t."
When it comes to using education to increase earning power, Farrell says it’s all about choosing the right subspecialty—particularly one that is least common, but most in demand. As an example, Farrell points to gypsy, or traveling, nurses: Even though nursing is an in-demand profession, because of the travel requirement, gypsy nurses can earn twice as much as traditional nurses.
"Ask not how far you want to go or what you should major in, ask what you should sub major in," Farrell says. "It’s not just your choice of field. What’s just as important is your choice of subfield."
Farrell believes the field, rather than the degree, can be a predictor of higher pay. Take data from the NCES, for example, which shows that among 2000 graduates with bachelor’s degrees, those with engineering degrees earned the most—close to $50,000—one year after graduation, while those with education degrees earned the least—less than $30,000—one year after graduation.
"A scientist is going to make a lot more than a language major," he says. "More important is that the choice of field not only predicts pay, but also the probability of getting a job in that field at all. "
Caring for your career
Practicality is exactly what propelled Teri Fagan’s paycheck. Fagan was working in accounting making $8.60 an hour when she and her family fell on hard times. A friend encouraged her to increase her earning potential by going back to school to become a nurse, but Fagan struggled on her own for four years before realizing higher education could improve her financial situation. Even so, the years she spent in school were "scary," she admits. "I was in the program full time, and the last year I was there, I only grossed $5,000," she says. "I relied a lot on family and friends."
With 2004 statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau revealing that women who hold at least an associate degree earn $9,032 more than women who don’t pursue higher education, the notion of one day having a better salary that could afford her a better life pushed Fagan through the program.
"They asked us in class why we wanted to be nurses, and many people said they wanted to give and be compassionate. I’m afraid I was all about money," Fagan ADmits. "But, I was intrigued by the thought of nursing. It’s intellectually stimulating, and it has a lot to do with accounting in terms of math and judgment."
After earning her degree, she landed a job on her second interview at Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C., one of the top 100 hospitals in the nation. Since then, her salary increased threefold, her family has taken their first vacation together, and Fagan was able to buy her first home.
And Fagan isn’t the only woman experiencing a pay increase. From 1979 to 2004, women’s earnings as a percentage of men’s increased from 62 to 80 percent, according to the BLS.
Does Fagan believe she received a return on her investment? Most definitely. "I wish I had thought in terms of the bigger picture and made education a priority earlier in life, so that I could enjoy my life more," she says.
Maintaining versatility
Frances Altman had a good job and an even better salary, but she returned to her alma mater, Roosevelt University in Chicago, to earn her master’s degree in communications because she felt it would help her keep pace with her peers in public relations.
"I was running into more and more people who had degrees," she says. "It became apparent that the additional consolidation of my education would be beneficial."
Of today's workforce, nearly 33 percent of women ages 25 to 64 had academic experience under their belt in 2004, compared to 11 percent in 1970, according to the BLS.
When her employer of 19 years downsized, the tangibility of Altman's degree became apparent. Although she was left without a job, she quickly found another, and eventually landed her current position as a public relations specialist for Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Business.
It was her degree, says Altman, that maintained her versatility in a continuously fluctuating job market. "You have to be watching for opportunities to reinvent yourself all the time," she says. "Maybe it seems public relations doesn’t exactly fit in one area, and yet I began working in PR in education. I’m using all the same techniques, but now I’m working with alumni and teachers."
Knowledge is business power
Erika Ingram says outright that her MBA helped increase her earning power. If she hadn’t pursued the degree, she may never have opened her own business. In fact, in 2003 more than 500,000 women aimed to increase their paychecks by enrolling in graduate programs, according to the most recent data from the NCES.
Like Altman, Ingram went back to school because she felt she needed to in order to keep up with her colleagues. Although she had no intention of leaving her job in Corporate America, her creation of a mock business plan for a school assignment got her thinking.
She worked with one of her marketing professors for two years to create a business plan for a spa, spoke to other spa owners around the country, and examined the pros and cons of the health and wellness industry. As a result, she opened the first location of her Iatria Spa and Health Center in Raleigh, N.C., at the age of 31, and seven years later, has opened an additional three locations throughout the state.
"Prior to going into business school, I was somewhat unconfident of what I didn’t know," Ingram says. "I was hungry for more information, and I wanted to see the big picture and have more of an impact." She admits that she could have never been able to accomplish that at the large organization where she worked prior to her education recommitment.
"[After graduating,] I had more self-confidence because I had a more well-rounded set of skills. I had a better network and knew to whom I should go."
There’s no question that education directly increased Ingram’s earning power. In fact, she hopes to spread the wealth of her knowledge as she begins teaching an online marketing course at the University of California at Irvine. "This enables me to give back, and that makes me happy," she says. "I’m more rewarded doing what I do now, because I can effect change better."
So if you hand your boss a copy of your advanced degree, will he or she hand you a raise in return? Not necessarily. But if there’s anything women can learn from Eve’s perceived weakness in eating the apple, it’s that we learn from experience.
"The career has something to do with it, there’s no question that’s part of the deal," says Marsha Firestone, president of the Women Presidents' Organization in New York, a nonprofit membership organization of 1,000 successful female entrepreneurs who own and run multimillion dollar businesses. "But education is key for opening doors," she attests.
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