This paper investigates the existence and origins of large gender pay gaps among university graduates early in their careers. Our analysis combines multiple administrative databases and focuses on the role of two groups of explanatory factors. The first group consists of education choices and their outcomes (choice of university and major, grade and age at graduation). The second includes numerous job characteristics, including the sector, profession, type of contract and employer.
The choice of university major is the main explanatory factor for the gender pay disparities observed at the beginning of the career and accounts for about 60 per cent of the average gap. Even within the same major, women have less remunerative jobs than men on average, but job characteristics only explain 20 per cent of the gap.
