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Study says women veterans lead nonvets in pay

A newly released analysis of the earning power of veterans appears to show that women veterans benefit more in post-service earnings compared to women who have never served than male veterans do when compared to men who have never served.

A U.S. Census Bureau comparison of veteran and nonveteran earnings, based on 2005 information, shows that female veterans earn an average of $4,945 per year more than nonveteran females while the salary difference is just $2,248 per year for male veterans when compared to males who never served in the military.

Shelly Lowe, a Census Bureau spokeswoman, said the earning report was first presented during a meeting of the American Sociological Association last August but was publicly released for the first time Monday.

But male veterans make far more than female veterans, according to the report. Men who served in the military earned an average of $42,128 per year compared to $32,217 for females. One reason for the difference could be that male veterans are older, averaging 51 years of age compared to an average age of 43 for female veterans.

Lowe said the salary edge that female veterans have over women who never served in the military may be much stronger than the salary advantage male veterans have over men who never served.

For men, salary differences tend to recede or completely disappear when age, education and marital status is taken into account, but salary difference for female veterans remain the same or larger when those additional factors are considered, Lowe said.

There are several reasons that might be true, including evidence that women veterans work longer hours and are more likely to work more weeks in a year than women who are not veterans, according to the analysis.

The demographer who prepared the analysis, Kelly Holder, said in a statement that “military education and work experience may translate into higher-paying civilian jobs than women with a high school degree would normally expect.”

“Male veterans may have less job experience, and thus lower earnings, than similar nonveterans for their age because they enter the civilian labor force later,” Holder said.