This study discusses the issue of earning disparities experienced by underrepresented minorities, by examining how earning gaps manifest even at the top of the education degree hierarchy--science and engineering doctorate recipients. The study uses four cycles of data (2003, 2006, 2008, 2010) from the National Science Foundation's Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR). The conceptual framework incorporates notions related to human capital theory (e.g., level of education, field of study, employment sectors) and the intersection of social structural factors (i.e., gender and race) to reveal disparities in the doctorate recipients' earnings. The study findings show that differences in earnings are largely accounted by social structures and field of study. In addition, the study suggests that doctorate recipients' career mobility (i.e., number of employment sectors changed between 2003 and 2010) had an effect on average salaries in 2010. This study extends the application of the intersection of gender and race/ethnicity framework to a highly educated population and draws attention to field of study and employment sector as key factors in discussing the returns to investment in education.