HSE Economists Reveal How the Wage Gap Emerges Among Vocational School Graduates
HSE researchers examined the careers of 600,000 graduates of Russian secondary vocational education programmes and found that at the start of their careers, the gender wage gap reaches 23%, doubling after three years. This disparity is largely due to male and female students choosing different occupations when enrolling in vocational schools. These were the findings made by Sergey Roshchin, Natalya Yemelina, and Ksenia Rozhkova from of the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences. The article has been published in Educational Studies.
Studies conducted in Russia reveal a considerable pay gap between male and female university graduates. However, despite the large scale of secondary vocational education, hardly any detailed studies of its graduates’ labour market outcomes have been undertaken. Meanwhile, within the vocational education system, men and women are much more likely to choose different fields of study than in higher education. In addition, graduates of vocational education programmes enter the workforce earlier and become involved in economic activity sooner, making the start of their careers a particularly crucial stage in the emergence of the gender wage gap. The authors analysed the employment trajectories of hundreds of thousands of vocational education graduates to determine how the choice of field of study and labour market characteristics influence their initial earnings.
The study used data from the Federal Service for Labour and Employment (Rostrud) on vocational school graduates aged 18 to 25 in 2022. The authors examined the wages of graduates from vocational education programmes for skilled workers, clerks, and mid-level professionals, considering only those who were officially employed under an employment contract six months after graduation. The sample included 633,000 graduates, of whom 222,000 were officially employed.
The authors identified the gender wage gap and tracked its dynamics by comparing data on graduates from 2019 and 2022. The results show that the choice of educational pathways in vocational education is characterised by significant gender segregation, which subsequently leads to occupational segregation in the labour market. Among skilled workers, about 70% of men studied engineering and technology, compared to just 18% of women. The most popular fields among young women include social sciences, healthcare, and education, chosen by 34%, 24%, and 14% of female students, respectively. In contrast, only 15.5%, 5.5%, and 0.8% of young men graduate from vocational programmes in these fields.
Men with technology-related training are more likely to work in manufacturing, construction, and energy. Women, regardless of their field of study, are more often employed in the commerce and service sectors, where barriers to entry are low but wages also tend to be lower.
Among mid-level professionals, men earn 12–21% more than women, depending on their field of study. Part of this gap can be explained by differences in industry and occupational distribution, but a portion remains unexplained. For example, in the mining sector, men earn on average 10,000 roubles per month more than women.
Ksenia Rozhkova
'The distribution by occupation and field of study reflects both personal preferences and socio-cultural attitudes. Men in technology-related fields are more likely to take positions as skilled workers, a category that has seen strong demand in recent years. Women, even in managerial roles, tend to concentrate in sectors with lower wages, such as healthcare and education,' explains Ksenia Rozhkova, Assistant Professor at the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences.
At the same time, women are more likely to hold jobs that match or exceed their skill level. Among mid-level professionals, more than a third of female graduates work as managers or in higher-level professional roles. This suggests that wage differences are not necessarily linked to differences in formal qualifications.
According to the authors, measures to reduce the gender wage gap should focus on decreasing segregation in the choice of educational programmes, expanding opportunities for women to enter high-paying technology and industrial professions, and improving the mechanisms that facilitate the transition from study to work.
These findings pertain to graduates’ first jobs and therefore reflect the early stage of their careers. 'At the same time, if we consider changes in the overall level of gender inequality in the economy, it has actually decreased over the past 10–15 years,' emphasises Rozhkova.
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