Unmasking the Gender Pay Gap: Causes and Impact

1069 Words3 Pages

Lilly Ledbetter once said, “We sought justice because equal pay for equal work is an American value. That fight took me ten years. it took me all the way to the Supreme Court. And, in a 5-4 decision, they stood on the side of those who shortchanged my pay, my overtime, and my retirement just because I am a woman.” The gender pay gap is a problem that many women, like Lilly Ledbetter, face everyday because it has many different causes, and it has a large impact on the economy in the United States. The gender pay gap has existed ever since women entered the workforce. Right now in the United States, the average female worker earns 78 percent of what the average male worker earns (“Gender Pay Gap: Recent Trends”). Also, according to the …show more content…

The first thing that factors in is that women are more likely to work in lower paying jobs including: retail trade, leisure and hospitality. There are not very many women who work in the three jobs with the highest wages: information services, mining and logging, and utilities (“Gender Pay Gap: Recent Trends”). According to the Council of Economic Advisors, “women are also slightly less likely than men to have access to paid leave and, perhaps as a result, are slightly more likely to take leave without pay.” Discrimination is another factor. Women may be influenced which job to choose base on discrimination, and it can cause women to leave their position (“Gender Pay Gap: Recent Trends”). According to the Council of Economic Advisors, there are less women who are receiving science and math degrees even though, in 2013, women earned 57 percent of all bachelor’s degree, 35 percent of which were in science, technology, engineering, and math fields. The level of education does not help the wage gap either, no matter what level of education women have there is still a pay gap (Dishman). The Council of Economic Advisors also says that “in general, women, even highly-educated women, are less likely to negotiate their first job offer than men. But even when women do negotiate, if the norms of negotiation and salary expectations are not transparent, they are likely to receive less than men.” A survey from …show more content…

The IWF has found that when women take leave for their family, men are able to gain experience and therefore more earnings (Cooper). According to Lydia Frank from the Harvard Business Review, “...the largest pay gaps existed between married mothers and fathers who tell us they prioritize family at least 1-4 times per year. No pay gap existed between single men and women without children who said they never prioritize home/family over work.” The causes of the gender pay gap can be easily fixed if the government takes

Show More
Related

  • Surviving on Minimum Wage: An Insight into Low-income Labor

    944 Words  | 2 Pages

    On the contrary, women still get paid less than men. According to CNN Money, “men still make more than women in most professions -- considerably more in some occupations than others, according to a new study by the job search site Glassdoor”. Although we like to comfort ourselves with the idea that we have gotten our rightfully earned rights, we had not been given bathroom breaks until 1998. Furthermore, employees are still afraid to have a voice in the workforce. Employers establish rules that let laborers know that they are inferior.

    Read More

  • Social Stratification Analysis Paper

    614 Words  | 2 Pages

    There is a pay gap between men and women in the U.S. The pay gap affects women of all educations levels, and backgrounds. But white men are the largest demographic in labor forces so they possibly favor each other as opposed to women. The graph didn’t specify the type of jobs, or whether they were working parts time or fulltime. But in 2016, women working full time in the U.S. were paid 80% of what men were getting paid. There are some occupations that have not reached the equity but some have like retail, banking and real

    Read More

  • Feminism is Still Pertinent Today

    1396 Words  | 3 Pages

    When women are actually given the same jobs as men, they may be paid the same but typically, they are not able to reach the higher positions in the company that men do. Even with their 77 cents to a man’s dollar, “women still tend to bear a larger responsibility for child care and other household matters within families” (Mazorelle). Women are not given the opportunity to earn as much as men, and they still have to take on a majority of the responsibilities of the household.... ... middle of paper ... ...

    Read More

  • Gender Pay Gap Analysis

    1036 Words  | 3 Pages

    This social justice issue is important in the community because it impacts women by disrespecting them, it makes women feel like they are not valued. Our central question is does pay equal respect? If pay equals respect then women are definitely not being respected. Society believes that men have that higher power so they should get paid more, this is a . It impairs the ability of women and families to buy homes and pay for college education, it limits their total lifetime earnings, savings, and benefits, which makes women much more vulnerable to poverty in retirement.This issue expands even into nonprofits as of nonprofits with budgets

    Read More

  • Gender Wage Gap: Social Injustice

    149 Words  | 1 Pages

    The social injustice I chose was the Gender Wage Gap. That means that there is a huge difference of one gender getting paid less than the other. A women makes 78 cents an hour while men make a dollar. In my piece, I chose to make both gender symbols doctors who perform the same job, the same amount of work hours,and that they both save lives. This shows that they equally do the same thing but why do the women get paid less than men? Another reason why I chose this is because I am a female and I want to be a doctor who is very successful. It would not be fair that I could be performing my job better than some male doctors but still get paid less. I want to be able to be recognized as a professional and educated who knows what she is

    Read More

  • What Is The Third Wave Feminism

    1095 Words  | 3 Pages

    Women have consistently received less pay than their male coworkers for the same work. the statistics released by the International Labor Organization reveal the obviously lower pay wages women receive. On average, a single women household earns around $27,000 with forty-three percent of that income coming from the government’s aid. In 2009 women made up only twenty-four percent of CEOs in the United States. Single mothers simply do not make enough money to provide a good life for their family, while living well within the poverty standard. ILO also released the world average difference in pay gap from women to men is seventeen percent. This is why Third Wave feminism can be labeled as radical in their fight for equality. To challenge todays social norms and challenge such a big gap, many would scoff. Cynthia, an active feminist in the work place, reports that “following the significant progress toward closing the gender wage gap during the 1980s and 1990s, the last decade has seen no further improvement.” No progress is being made and single working mothers are being paid less then men for the same work. Despite this injustice, progress is being made, Cynthia explains that the “Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009” allows workers to legally discuss work wages and allow women to report unfair or unequal wages (7). This is a step to gender equality and a creating a hopeful future for women. Despite

    Read More

  • Gender Payage Gap Essay

    1384 Words  | 3 Pages

    When President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963 into law, he hoped that it would allow working women to finally earn the same amount of money as men; however, more than half a century later, men continue to out earn women in almost every field of work (Lipman para. 4). Male dominated fields tend to pay more than female dominated fields at similar skill levels. In 2012, women earned an average of $691 per week while men earned an average of $854 per week. Furthermore, the majority of women remain unaware that they are earning less than their male colleagues (Hegewisch para. 1). The gender wage gap not only harms a woman’s ability to provide for herself, it also harms many children and families. Women are now the primary caregivers

    Read More

  • Gender Gap In Pay

    1584 Words  | 4 Pages

    The United States has one of the highest gender pay gaps among the developed countries. In the country, the gender pay gap is measured as the ratio of female to males yearly earning among workers in full-time, year round (FTYR) earnings. In 2009, female FTYR earned 77% (0.77) as much as the FTYR male workers (US Census Bureau, 2013). The history of Gender Gap earning reveals USA has made big strides towards reducing the gender pay gap from 1980. For instance, in 1980 the gender pay gap ratio was 0.62 while in 1990, the gap stood at 0.72. Further from 1990 to 2000, the gap reduced to 0.73 and then to 0.77 in 2009. Currently, the gender pay gap stands at 0.76 and continues to persist (US Census Bureau, 2013).

    Read More

  • What Is The Gender Wage Gap?

    1502 Words  | 4 Pages

    There are important factors that measures income that are not inputted in many statistical finding in relation to how the gender wag gap is calculated. According to the article The Pay Gap from a Different Perspective, “They are nationwide annual measures that do not account for hours worked per week, weeks worked per year, educational attainment, college majors and specialties (options) within those majors, physical demands, hazardous and unpleasant working conditions and employee preference” (Kilgour, 2014, p. 2). Know this is where information starts to become misleading because many of these finding are based on every working man and women. Kilgour (2014) identifies the wage gap would basically be closed, if the reports were altered to reflect weekly hours worked. If all contributing factors were implemented, there would be evidence that show women would accumulate more income than men throughout the workforce in the near future. The gender wage gap is not based on same job equivalent but broken down into genders no matter what job careers are indicated. There is a lower percent of women who want to work the corporate jobs which require most of its employee’s time devoted to the company, so they would rather have jobs that offer flexibility so they can still be the nurturer at home. This is the main reason for the gender wage gap because most men don’t mind working long hours and being away from their families for extended time. Most when are nurtures so they prefer to take a lesser paying job in order to keep their family their number one

    Read More

  • Gender Wage Gap Affects Women Today

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    This could contribute to the wage gap, but even after you factor in the fact that women often work in different occupations and industries than men, as well as differences in work experience, union status, education and race, 41% of that gap is still unexplained. The segregation of women in the workforce majorly affects the closing of the wage gap. Women also face a lot of discrimination in the workplace based on their race and gender. Something that occurs often with discrimination in the workforce is a consent decree. A consent decree is defined as “an agreement or settlement to resolve a dispute between two parties without admission of guilt (in a criminal case) or liability (in a civil case) and most often refers to such a type of settlement in the United States.”

    Read More

  • Equal Pay For Women Essay

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    (Despeignes, and Dunne 06) In other words, men dominated majority of the companies CEO 's which influence the decision and implementation of having an equal pay to women. I bet the situation of the 10 companies that run by women are different than the rest. A Cornell University Study, by Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn, showed that the pay gap had tightened as women gained more full time work experience and employers became influenced that women were dedicated to remain at their jobs. (Blau) In my experience, working in the financial institution for seven years, larger part of my work are senior female that works more than 20 years compare to

    Read More

  • The Wage Gap

    1268 Words  | 3 Pages

    In our society, women are faced with discrimination more than men. Compared to men, women face a lot inequalities in the work field. Men and women who hold the same position in a work field have differences in wage, this is known as the wage gap. Women are typically paid less than men despite the amount of work, effort, and skill level they have at their job. The wage gap between genders has been around since women entered the work force and still remains in existence to this day.

    Read More

  • Gender Wage Inequality

    1646 Words  | 4 Pages

    One cannot begin the discussion of the gender pay gap without defining it. Simply put, the gender pay gap is the inequality between men and women's wages. The gender pay gap is a constant international problem, in which women are paid, on average, less than that of their male counterparts. As to whether gender pay gap still exists, its exactness fluctuates depending on numerous factors such as professional status, country and regional location, gender, and age. In regards to gender, in some cases, both men and women have stated that the gap does not exist.

    Read More

  • Why Are women Paid Less than Men? The Gender Gap

    1364 Words  | 3 Pages

    Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddess, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken Books. 1975.

    Read More

  • Gender Pay Gap Essay

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women’s right to equal pay or gender pay gap has been a subject of discussion over the years in the united states, women perform similar jobs to men, but are paid

    Read More

More about Unmasking the Gender Pay Gap: Causes and Impact

Open Document