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Male-dominated professions in Denmark have higher average earnings, study finds

The Local Denmark
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Male-dominated professions in Denmark have higher average earnings, study finds
File photo: Kristian Djurhuus/Ritzau Scanpix

Professions with a higher proportion of men are better-paid than jobs generally preferred by women, according to an analysis.

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Mathematics and natural science-related degrees give the best potential for high earning, according to analysis by liberal thinktank Cepos, which compared salary to educational field based on Statistics Denmark figures.

Poorly-paid professions include those closely related to art, music and cultural degrees, newspaper Berlingske reports based on the Cepos analysis.

The best-paid degree holders are those who have studied Actuarial Mathematics, Cepos found. The average wage for such alumni is 1,383,200 kroner annually.

In contrast, art graduates earn an average annual salary of 267,000 kroner.

The ten highest-paid degree fields are listed as:

  • Actuarial Mathematics (1,383,200 kroner average annual wage)
  • Business Economics and Auditing (1,105,900 kroner)
  • Mathematics-Economics (1,102,200 kroner)
  • Dairy agricultural science (1,093,900 kroner)
  • Civil Engineering (1,092,300 kroner)
  • Political Science (1,074,300 kroner)
  • Medicine (1,057,600 kroner)
  • Economics (1,043,900 kroner)
  • Economics and Business Administration (954,200 kroner)
  • Law (952,900 kroner)

The study found a significant difference in average salary between fields of study preferred by men and those preferred by women.

 

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For the ten degrees with the highest proportion of male graduates, the average salary is 640,000 kroner.

For women, the equivalent figure is 490,000 kroner. Fields of study with the highest proportion of female students include Nursing and Human Nutrition, Berlingske writes.

Two of the degrees in the top ten for highest average salary – Medicine and Law – have a higher proportion of female than male graduates. 57 percent of medicine graduates are female, while women make up 59 percent of those with a law degree, according to the analysis.

Salary figures relate to income levels in 2017 projected to 2020, while Berlingske also notes that for newer types of degree, graduates will have had less time on average to build seniority and thereby salary.

READ ALSO: What's it like to work in Denmark as a foreigner?

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