Gender Pay Gap Essay

Over the years women have constantly been paid less than men for the same job with the same training. Employers have used various reasons as an excuse to maintain the gender wage gap. Society has taught the people that women should receive less and now people just accept that is the way it is going to be. The wage gap has existed for centuries but by creating new laws and changing how society thinks equal pay day may become a reality.
Throughout history, the job market has never seen an equal pay day. Women are still fighting for equal wages for doing to same job as a man. According to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center one in seven adults, men or women, say they have been a victim of discrimination (On Pay Gap, Millennial Women Near Parity – For Now ).1 Motherhood, or even the potential for motherhood, has created a difference in pay. From a survey conducted by Laura Basset, sixty-two percent of women ages eighteen to thirty-five expected that having children would have a negative impact on their career (Basset). Most women who expect that child bearing will have a negative impact say it is because once the child is born it is likely that their work hours will be reduced. June O’Neill, an economist at Baruch College and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, concluded that if the effects of marriage and raising a family were to be eliminated, the gender pay differences would nearly disappear (Why Women Earn Less). California has created the nation’s first paid family leave program. The program allows the mother to take double maternity leave and it creates the possibility that either the hours at work or income will increase (Porter). When becoming a mother the chance of a woman taking the exte...

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... stacked against the paychecks of white men (Casserly).
Experts believe that there are a myriad of factors that can be attributed to the wage gap. More education, greater labor force participation, an increase in more lucrative occupations, gender stereotypes, discrimination, professional networks all contribute to the gender wage gap (On Pay Gap, Millennial Women Near Parity – For Now). Smaller factors that help create the gap include grades, course choices, career interruptions, and the tendency to work fewer hours (Porter). While many have speculated about the factors that contribute to the wage gap, there are some that can not be explained. It is believed that about one third of the wage gap can not be simply not be explained. In the past the gender wage gap can be defined by many things. The factors that cause the gender wage gap are very similar to the