Women with advanced degrees earn 21 percent less than comparable men in the private sector but only 12 percent less in the public sector. So while women are underpaid in both sectors, they are less underpaid in the public sector. The same thing is true for blacks: at every level of education, blacks in the public sector earn less than whites—but not as much less as they do in the private sector. In the public sector they earn 2 percent less than whites; in the private sector, 13 percent less.
