UCLA Anderson Narrows the Gender Pay Gap with Transparent Salary Data

In 2014, women working full time in the United States earned just 79 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to U.S. Census data. Emily Taylor, Director of MBA Career Education and Communication at UCLA Anderson, was well aware of this gap. She had long seen how a lack of salary transparency left graduates—especially women—underprepared to negotiate offers or understand their market value.

Two years later, in 2016, Taylor noticed something surprising in UCLA’s MBA salary data. The wage gap between men and women had nearly disappeared. After adopting 12twenty’s data and analytics tools, female graduates were now earning 98.6 cents for every dollar earned by their male peers at 12twenty partner schools.

Taylor credits the shift to transparency. By giving students access to real salary data—filterable by industry, job function, location, and demographics—12twenty made it easier for students to benchmark their value and advocate for competitive compensation.

“They know exactly what their peers are getting, and they can demand that on the market,” said Taylor.

And UCLA wasn’t alone. That same year, women MBA graduates across 12twenty’s partner institutions earned an average of 97 cents to the dollar. This was a significant improvement over national MBA trends, where a Forté Foundation study found that women earned nearly $30,000 less than men in their first post-MBA job.