Double-Pane Glass Ceiling: Commercial Engagement and the Female-Male Earnings Gap for Faculty

Joseph Staudt

Working Papers from U.S. Census Bureau, Center for Economic Studies

Abstract: I use administrative data from universities (UMETRICS) linked to the universe of confidential W-2 and 1040-C tax records to measure faculty commercial engagement and its role in female-male earnings gaps. Female faculty are 20 percentage points less likely to engage commercially, with the entire gap driven by self-employment. The raw earnings gap is $63,000 on a base of $162,000 and non-university earnings account for $18,000 (29 percent) of this total. Thus, while university pay explains most of the gap, commercial engagement substantially amplifies it. Earnings gaps appear in all components of non-university pay – self-employment, and work for incumbent, young/startup, high-tech, and non-high-tech firms – and remain large, though attenuated, after controlling publications, patents, field, university, scientific resources, age, marital status, childbearing, and demographics. Gaps widen as faculty move up the earnings distribution, and commercial engagement becomes a larger contributor. Men and women engage with similar industries, but men earn more in all shared industries.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; academic commercial engagement; male-female wage gap; university faculty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J16 J31 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent, nep-eur, nep-lab and nep-sbm
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cen:wpaper:25-68

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