There is a long history for the wage gap that exists between men and women. In 1963, the Equal Pay Act was passed by John F Kennedy in the aim to eliminate all wage discrimination between men and women. Therefore, the law would make it illegal for a woman to be paid unfairly by her employer for sexist reasons.The argument that women are paid less than men based solely on the fact that they are a woman, and it is all due to discrimination in the workplace is a bold statement because it is being based on the unfair treatment of women in the past. However, times have changed and women are now given the equal amount of opportunity to become as successful as anyone else. Even though it may seem that there is still a wage gap between genders because …show more content…
Women are not necessarily attracted to low wage jobs, but their jobs attract low wages. Statistics prove that women make up the majority of jobs that pay much lower than the the jobs that men work. Men make up the majority of the higher paying and more physically demanding occupations such as engineering, mining, and operating machinery, while women make up most of the lower paying jobs such as social works, teaching, and nursing jobs. Also, women do not usually work jobs that are as hazardous as a males, which is another contribution to the wage gap. There were 5,559 fatal workplace injuries in 2003—of these, 5,115 were men and 444 women (). If women could start entering more jobs relating to fields of STEM, then the wage gap would lower by a lot. There is a possibility that most women are raised to not strive for STEM related jobs because it is unlady like, but women need to make the decision to work towards entering fields like STEM if they desire to make more …show more content…
Even though it is possible that discrimination still exists in workplaces, that is still not enough reason to overcome the strong statistics that prove that women often make less money due to their own career choices. In some cases a woman may be a victim of wage discrimination and in that case the woman should sue the employer or the place place in which she works. For example, Lilly Ledbetter was a victim of wage discrimination during her time working at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., so she filed a lawsuit to be compensated for her work there.There are discrimination laws that prohibit the unfair treatment of employees based upon their gender. If there is discrimination, then these laws permit lawsuits to be filed against the employer or the workplace that the victim is employed. Therefore, discrimination cannot be used as an excuse for the wage gap. All people are faced with choices in their lives that can greatly impact how their careers will turn out. Having a more successful career is all a matter of making the right
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.
The article The Complex Causes of the Gender Pay Gap written by Barbara Wagner, she shows “Economic research on the gender pay gap has found many reasons for the differences in pay between men and women, including different career and education choices, differences in work experience, and, yes, discrimination. Both male and female managers are equally likely to demonstrate gender bias in hiring and pay” (Wagner, 2015).
If I were to ask you why there is a pay gap, the most common answer I would get is this, “More women take time off to care for their families than men, and this explains their shortcomings in pay”. So then why, when comparing both men and women who have not taken time off, is there still a difference in pay? Like I said before, gender differences and industry choice can explain up to 50% of the gap. The “Study Counters Usual Explanations for Pay Gaps” article states that, “There is a greater concentration of women working within a particular industry that tends to pay less”. For example, women make up only 9% of workers in the high-paying legal and management occupations according to the article “The Complex Causes of the Gender Wage Gap” written by Barbara Wagner. (TALK ABOUT MOM) Nationally, women make less than men because there aren’t as many of us in as high paying of jobs as them. What I found was that the discrimination doesn’t lie in the amount of money women and men are being payed, the bias against women is in the occupation and the job market before she even applies for the position. Barbara Wagner wrote in the article “The Complex Causes of the Gender Wage Gap” that women are less likely to be accepted into education and training programs in non-traditional fields like agriculture, architecture, and engineering. She also wrote that
Under the Equal Pay Act of 1863, the gender wage gap supposedly no longer exists, but the facts are that “as of 2012 women in the U.S. earn 77 cents to a man's dollar” (ProQuest Staff). Men try to justify this unjust statistic by saying that “wage gap isn't necessarily the result of discrimination” (ProQuest Staff). Although, there is no logical reasoning behind it. 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 then they still have to take on a majority of the responsib...
There is a lot of debate whether or not the gender pay gap exist or not. I'm here to say for a fact that it does. In every job that I've ever had, some of the women were paid more then the some of the men. Then again, these women have worked these jobs longer. Other than that, men and women were paid equalling. The gender pay gap is often referred to as a glass ceiling. For decades, feminists have tried to break that glass ceiling. So I'm here to give you some tips on how to break that glass ceiling.
Despite the great lengths society has overcome in regards to gender inequality, social issues regarding the difference between men and women still exist. Women in today’s society still continually earn less than men in almost every single occupation. Women were given the right to vote in 1919, yet in 2016 they still have not achieved full equality in comparison to their male counterparts. Gender equality related to equal pay is concerning not only in my own community, but the entire nation.
Women have faced gender wage discrimination for decades. The gender pay gap is the difference between what a male and a female earns. It happens when a man and a woman standing next to each other doing the same job for the same number of hours get paid different salaries. On average, full-time working- women earn just “77 cents for every dollar a man earn.” When you compare a woman and a man doing the same job, “the pay gap narrows to 81 percent (81%)” (Rosin). Fifty-one years ago, in order to stop the gender gap discrimination, Congress enacted the Equal Pay Act of 1963. The act states that all women should receive “equal pay for equal work”. Unfortunately, even in 2014 the gender pay gap persists and even at the highest echelons of the corporate; therefore, the equal pay act is a failure.
America is the country of equal opportunities, however, women suffer from wage discrimination. Women earn seventy-seven cents for every dollar that a man makes. This is read everywhere, but there is more to it. Inequality and discrimination have been declared illegal since 1964 (Gibelman 24). So, why are women affected by the wage gap when discrimination is illegal? The answers vary, but it depends on job positions, the time spent, and the performance of the workers. I read multiple academic journals in order to come up with reasons for the wage gap. The wage gap is a huge topic because people need to understand how far it goes. Furthermore, when most people pay attention to pay inequality in the United
The issue of equal pay between genders is still a problem in today’s society. Not to mention the argument of equal pay between genders of different ethnicities and minorities. A white man no matter his age, is unfairly paid more than a black or Mexican man. As well as a white woman can be paid more than both a black or Mexican man, and her ethnic female colleagues. Women of color are paid less than their male counterpart, not to mention the gaping wide wage gap between women of color and a white man. The many factors leading into why the wage gap exists or still exists is that men are stronger, and deserve bigger salaries. This is the main idea of sexism, and that women should earn less than men. When in some
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
Gender Pay Gap also referred to as Gender wage gap, gender income difference or male-female income difference refers to the difference between the earning of men and women (Victoria, 2006). The European Union defines the Gender Pay gap as the difference between men and women’s hourly earnings (OECD, 2012). The difference may be measured on hourly, weekly, monthly, or yearly earning. The difference is expressed as a percentage of the men’s earning. However, the difference varies from one industry to another, from one country to another and from one age group to another. On average, men earn higher than women do across different sectors and nations.
The gender pay gap is a myth. I can't believe I have to say it out loud, it's so obvious. It is the statistic that for every dollar that a man earns, a woman would make 77 cents of that dollar (This is roughly the same in every other developed nation). This is completely ludicrous and it's fooling the leaders of the world. Barack Obama, arguably the most powerful person in the world, updated his equal pay legislation to try to close the gender pay gap in America It had no effect. Why, though?
For many years in United States, equal salary pay for women has been a major issue that women have been fighting for decades. This began back in World War II, when the National Labor Board urged equalize the salary rates for women with the same rates that males were getting of the same professions. (Rowen) Although, traditionally most women do not work to provide for there family and there are not so many independent women during World War II. After World War II more women lost their jobs to veterans returning to the workforce. Women in the workforce after the war have been discriminated ever since. The idea of women as weak and cannot perform there jobs
Some people may say that women make less because they choose to go into lower paying jobs that aren’t as risky and dangerous as the jobs that men take. In the workplace, it is a known fact that women early 76 cents to every male dollar (Fisanick, 131). Feminist groups imply that the wage gap is due to things such as discrimination and that women are the victims in the workplace. This may sound like a harsh discovery but it is statistically proven. While the statistic looks as if women are mispaid in the workplace, that isn’t true in every case.
Think about every year 10% of what could possibly someone’s income goes directly down the drain. That is what the wage gap between genders is essentially doing, it is taking money that could be females and throwing away, a female who worked just as hard as her male coworkers and is getting paid less. The wage gap between genders is alive in our society being even more evident for women of ethnicity. The wage gap has been around forever it started because most women weren’t in the workforce.