Despite a dramatic increase in the number of young women holding university degrees, there has been little progress in closing the wage gap between genders, according to a new study.

The Statistics Canada study says the earnings gap between the sexes only declined moderately during the 1990s, despite the significant growth in the proportion of young women graduating from university.

"It's important for me to feel that the salary I get is according to the work that I do, and that it's fair with regards to the other co-workers," economics student Julie Duscheneau told CTV News.

From 1991 to 2001, the proportion of 25- to 29-year-old women holding university degrees rose to 34 per cent from 21.

In contrast, the proportion of men with degrees in their 20s climbed only moderately, from 16 per cent in 1991 to 21 per cent in 2001.

Yet the wage gap narrowed only slightly, despite the sharp increase in the proportion of young women with university degrees and the fact that university degree-holding workers generally make more money than their less-educated counterparts.

Women aged 25 to 29 earned 20 per cent less than men in 1991.

By 2001, the gap had narrowed slightly to 18 per cent, mainly because of the higher qualifications among young women.

"One reason why the earnings gap only declined slightly in the 1990s, despite the rapidly rising educational attainment among young women, is that the gap among university graduates actually increased over the period," said the government agency, adding that it went from 12 per cent in 1991 to 18 per cent in 2001.

Job choices

"At first glance it's a little a bit surprising. If you dig a bit deeper it becomes less so. The type of disciplines that men and women take is quite important to take into account here," Statistics Canada's Marc Frenette told CTV Newsnet.

He cited wage increases in male-dominated disciplines such as engineering, mathematics, computer sciences and physical sciences.

Barbara Jaworski of the Workplace Institute said the study shows women are "still choosing traditional fields . . . where wages may be more supressed."

"I think that Statistics Canada is saying the rationale they're using is that women are perhaps going into education, health, arts, those types of professions, versus men (who are) going into engineering, computer science and pure sciences," Jaworski told CTV Newsnet.

"In general, women are getting university degrees but they're not necessarily making astute choices in terms of getting ahead financially."

Frenette said between the period of 1991 to 2001, there was a large expansion in the high-tech sector, where wages increased rapidly, "and as a result, university-graduated men benefited largely from that expansion."

In contrast, there were wage declines in female-dominated disciplines in health and education.

"Those disciplines are largely related to public sector jobs, to some extent, and private sector jobs as well. But over the period of time that we're looking at it is very important to consider that there were a lot of wage freezes in several jurisdictions at the public level," Frenette said.

Meanwhile, there is early evidence that the gender wage gap among young workers has declined, he said.

"What we have noticed since 2000 is that wages among young women have increased whereas among young men wages have remained stagnant over the period," Frenette said.

"It is some early indication that the situation may have begun to reverse since the turn of the century."

Statistics Canada also found the wage gap fell more quickly in the 1980s, going from 26 per cent in 1981 to 20 per cent in 1991.

But the government agency adds that the higher qualifications among young women played only a minor role during this timeframe.

The study, which used Census of Population data from 1981 to 2001, examined the role of rising educational attainment, discipline, region, city size, marital status, number of children, and weeks worked.

Only those aged 25 to 29 who worked an average of 30 hours or more every week for at least 40 weeks in the year prior to the census were included in the analysis.

With a report from CTV's Genevieve Beauchemin