Professional women have narrowed the gender pay gap, but troubling inequities remain

The gender pay gap among holders of advanced business degrees has narrowed by as much as half over the past two decades, according to research from UC Berkeley Haas—a shift researchers link in part to women’s higher rates of continued workforce participation after having children. But the study also revealed a paradox: whereas wage disparity between high-earning men and women used to start small and widen over careers, it now appears from the outset.

What makes that finding especially troubling was that the research team could not explain the gap by accounting for differences in hours worked, industry, career interruptions, and a host of other measurable factors.

“There’s a significant gap from the very beginning. It doesn’t get bigger, but it doesn’t get smaller either,” said Professor Ann Harrison, a UC Berkeley Haas economist and former dean who co-authored the paper. “It’s a gap that has no obvious explanation.”

30 years, more than 2,000 alumni

The National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, co-authored by Professor Laura Kray, a social psychologist at UC Berkeley Haas, and Noor Sethi, PhD 26 (Agricultural & Resource Economics), tracked MBA graduates from a large public university across 30 years, surveying more than 2,100 alumni who graduated between 1991 and 2021. The analysis found significant progress: Men who graduated before 2006 earned roughly 32% more than women over the course of their careers. The unadjusted pay gap fell by as much as half for post-2006 graduates.

“When we look at the same timeframe for the two cohorts you can see that 10 years out from the MBA, the earlier cohort was making 60 cents on the dollar, and now it’s 80 cents,” said Kray, the Ned and Carol Spieker Chair in Leadership.

Examining the “greedy work” theory

The paper, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, follows up on landmark research by Marianne Bertrand, Claudia Goldin, and Lawrence F. Katz that looked at pay disparities among University of Chicago MBA graduates from 1990 to 2006. That paper found men and women MBAs essentially earned the same at the start of their careers but the pay gap grew as women interrupted their careers for motherhood or cut their hours to deal with child care. The study attributed a significant portion of the gender pay gap to the long hours, heavy travel commitments, and inflexible schedules of high-powered corporate and finance jobs—what Goldin came to call “greedy work.”

The Haas research replicated the earlier findings up to and including 2006. But Harrison, Kray, and Sethi found that among post-2006 MBA graduates, women’s total compensation was 13% less than men on day one—before anyone had a chance to work longer hours, change industries, or take parental leave.

Are women being penalized in advance?

One disturbing possibility is that women are being penalized in advance for motherhood and childcare decisions they may or not make during their careers. “It could very well be the case that (women) are being penalized,” said Harrison. “But we don’t know for sure.”

Harrison said women starting business careers today should be aware that there remains an enormous penalty for taking time off from the workforce—as there was in the earlier study. A six-month interruption for a baby can reduce lifetime earnings by 30%, they found.

Where the gap is closing

Yet for all its sober findings, the study also documents significant progress in narrowing the gender pay gap, a breakthrough driven by profound changes in how professional men and women approach their careers.

In particular, much of the shrinking wage gap can be attributed to a convergence among men and women in hours worked. Surprisingly, this convergence is not primarily the result of women working more hours, but rather that men are working fewer—from nearly 53 hours per week before 2006 to just over 50 hours per week in the later period.

More striking is that women with MBAs are now 60% less likely to leave the workforce to raise their children than they were in earlier decades, a sign that norms around career and family have changed substantially.

“As childcare opportunities are more limited and more expensive, men are taking up a larger share of household duties,” said Harrison, the Gary and Sherron Kalbach Chair in Business Administration.

The influence of cultural attitudes about women and work

The paper also took a closer look at the role of so-called greedy work. Men and women in the study participated in greedy work at nearly equal rates, but because women still bear a disproportionate share of childcare responsibilities, they are less able to sustain the punishing demands these roles require when children arrive—missing out on both the outsized pay that comes with doing so and the career continuity that makes that pay grow over time.

The study also drew on long-term data from the General Social Survey (GSS), which includes questions about the role of women in the workplace and home—such as whether respondents approved of a married woman working if her husband could support her and whether a preschool child suffers if the mother works. They found that women raised in regions with more conservative views about women’s roles worked roughly 3% to 4% less per week—which in turn reduced their pay. More surprisingly, this effect was absent before 2006 and only became statistically significant in the more recent period, suggesting that childhood cultural attitudes may have a stronger grip on today’s professional women than on the generation before them.

Harrison noted that while the research could measure the sexism of the regions in which women grew up, directly measuring discrimination in today’s hiring and pay practices remained beyond the reach of their data.

A persistent gap at the top

Kray said that the detailed analysis contributes to the broader conversation, allowing researchers to get a finer-grained understanding of the dynamics of the gender pay gap.

“We often think that if we want to close the pay gap, we just need to have more women at the top,” said Kray. “But we found that with the highest earners—those in the 90th percentile of earnings—we still see the largest gap, with men’s salaries about 75% higher than women’s. So it’s not enough for women to just be in those elite jobs—there’s something else happening and we couldn’t find a rational explanation for it.”

Key findings:

• Significant overall progress: The raw gender wage gap among MBA graduates narrowed by 33% to 50% over the last two decades. For example, 10 years after graduation, the pre-2006 cohort of women earned 60 cents on the dollar compared to men, while the more recent cohort earns 80 cents.
• The early-career gap: While the wage gap used to be negligible at graduation and widened over time, a 13% gap has emerged immediately upon graduation for those who graduate after 2006. This early gap persists even after accounting for industry, hours worked, and career interruptions.
• Convergence in hours worked: Much of the narrowing gap is attributed to men and women working more similar hours. Notably, this is driven by men working fewer hours (dropping from nearly 53 to 50 hours per week) rather than women working more.
• Less likely to drop out: Women in the post-2006 cohort were 60% less likely to leave the workforce to raise children than women in earlier decades. Despite this, women are still less able to sustain “greedy” roles once children arrive due to carrying a disproportionate share of childcare responsibilities.
• The high-earner disparity: The gender gap is most severe among the highest earners. At the 90th percentile of income, men’s salaries are approximately 75% higher than women’s.
• The massive work interruption penalty: There remains a severe financial penalty for career interruptions. Taking as little as six months off to have a baby can result in lifetime earnings being 30% lower than those of male colleagues.
• Impact of “background sexism”: Exposure to conservative views about gender in childhood continues to influence work choices. Women raised in these regions work 3% to 4% fewer hours per week, an effect that has become more statistically significant for the post-2006 generation

Read the paper:

“Progress or Backsliding? Changes in the Gender Wage Gap for Business Professionals.”
By Ann Harrison, Laura Kray, and Noor Sethi
National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series, April 2026

(Key findings prepared with AI assistance)