The map displays proportion of women with a four year college degree (or higher), the median earnings of college-educated female full-time workers, and the pay gap between college-educated women and men for the 50 states and the District of Columbia:
- Percentage of women with a four-year college degree.
The data includes all women who were aged 25 and older at the time of the survey (whether or not they were in the paid workforce). To ensure sufficient sample size, data for three years (2007, 2006 and 2005) were combined. Women with a two-year associate degree, or who attended college but did not receive a degree, are not included.
- The earnings of college educated women who worked full-time, year-round.
Full-time, year-round employment is defined as more than 49 weeks during the year and more than 34 hours per week. Those who are self employed are not included. Women ages 25 and older who have a four-year college degree, including those who have earned advanced degrees beyond the four-year bachelor degree, are included. Respondents were asked in 2007, 2006 and 2005 to report earnings for the previous year, and thus the numbers shown reflect the average wage and salary earnings in 2004, 2005 and 2006. In order to make these figures comparable to today's dollars, earnings were inflated into 2006 dollars using the Consumer Price Index.
- The earnings ratio between college-educated women and men.
The earnings ratio was calculated by dividing the median yearly earnings of full-time women workers by the median yearly earnings of full-time male workers (as reported in the Current Population Survey March Supplement for earnings in 2004, 2005 and 2006).
Note: This map is based on data from the 2005, 2006 and 2007 Current Population Survey, a joint effort between the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau. The annual wage and salary earnings are taken from the March Supplement of 2005, 2006 and 2007. Three years of data are averaged, in order to ensure a large enough sample size.
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