Queens College's Andy Beveridge is quoted in the Times as revealing evidence that in 2005, the median annual wage for young full-time female workers in several big cities was perhaps $5,000 more than males in the same category.
The article cited a lawyer who speculated the reason might be that females are more driven to begin their careers earlier in life, in order to be well established before engaging in childbearing. It would be interesting to see whether this kind of life-cycle compression really could be seen in data.
