The Gender Wage Gap Did you know that women would have to stay at least ten more years in the workforce to earn the same amount as men? All through history, discrimination has been a constant blight on human existence; whether it is race, gender, or religion. Unfortunately, when both genders have the same experience, are equally trained, and possess the same degree the pay is not equal. Women and men are not treated equally in the workplace, even though it is the twenty-first century. Women working full-time, year-round earn a median salary of $41,554 compared to men 's median salary of $51,640 (Semega). The disparity is $10,086 per year and when calculating over the course of their career the difference is almost half a million dollars. This reduces women’s lifetime earnings and affects their pension, retirement, and social security. Although the wage gap has existed since the 1800’s, the increased participation of women in the labor force correlates with the decrease of the wage gap. The wage gap has dwindled over the years; however, the progress has slowed down in the past two decades. “At …show more content…
In Lauren Dixon’s article, “5 Ways to Fix the Gender Pay Gap” she provides her readers with solutions on mitigating the gender pay gap. Dixon mentions March 8 “A Day Without A Woman” and she discusses the enormous value that women of all backgrounds add to the American economic system (Dixon). Flexible work, paid leave, on-site childcare, pay transparency, and improved feedback on performance reviews are the suggestions that Lauren Dixon offers to close the wage gap (Dixon). Another public awareness day to show the gap between men and women’s earning is Equal Pay Day. This day in April symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. The American Association of University Women suggests to raise the Federal minimum wage, offer affordable child care, wage transparency, and they encourage women to develop negotiating skills
The main purpose of the article, “Equal Pay Day: When, where and why women earn less than men” by Dana Ford, is to inform the audience about the pay gap between genders that still exists in the United States today. To emphasize on the subject of gender pay gap, Ford shows the reader how race, age, and even the state the woman lives in could affect how big or small the pay gap is. While the speaker, Dana Ford, may use a negative tone toward the issue, this newdesk editor is also aware of the progress in equality in the past 50 years. Ford states that “The good news is that the gender pay gap is getting smaller. In 1964, women on average were paid 59% of what men were paid.
In the United States, women have been fighting for their equality since the beginning. First, it was the women’s suffrage movement that was catching everyone’s eye. Recently, the fight against the gender wage gap has come to many people’s attention and is finally making an
In 2009 President Obama signed into law the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (The Whitehouse, n.d.). The major provisions of this Act prohibits wage discrimination based on sex, race, or national origin among employees for work in equivalent jobs. According to National Committee on Pay Equity (n.d.), the Act defines “equivalent jobs are those who’s composite of skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions are equivalent in value, even if the jobs are dissimilar.” Today women earn roughly seventy-nine cents for every dollar earned by men. Atchinson, Belcher, and Thornsen (2013) state that women have entered the workforce not only because of increased educational opportunities but also because of the need for two paychecks in many families
Research shows wage gaps are solely a product of the choices of the second party. Woman have chosen what level of education they wish to pursue, the fields they wish to be in, and where they work. When looking back at a censuses of the early-to-mid 1900’s the majority of working women worked at small enterprises rather than booming companies: large Firms pay at higher rates, their payout going predominantly to males of the working class (Rubenstien, Michael Harvey). When taken under the scope, large enterprises rejected woman workers, and if they did hire, the lady’s income would be significantly smaller. Consequently, companies would deny the reason being that they were of a different sex, and rather blame it on how little education the skill the person had, “Frequently, even when given raises, their new pay still comes short of that of their male coworkers.
Today, women work in various jobs taking impactful roles in countries and established businesses worldwide. Even though the wage gap doesn't yield a perfect 1:1 ratio, the gap is steadily decreasing with the constant efforts led by
Women's across the country and in every corner of our economy continue to experience unequal pay. Today, women who are full time year round workers in the work force are still typically paid less than men who work full time ( NWLC
Did they win their fight, or are they fighting for no reason? Equal pay was always a struggle for women. When men and women in the same workplace got paid different amounts for the same amount of work it angered women. “The persistence of gender-based wage disparities — commonly referred to as the pay or wage gap — has been the subject of extensive debate and commentary.
With equal pay, poverty would decrease by more than a half. Supporting evidence from the President and CEO of the IFWPR, Dr. Heidi Hartmann, is “ Providing equal pay to women would have a dramatic impact on their families. The poverty rate for all working women would be cut in half, falling to 3.9 percent from 8.1 percent. The very high poverty rate for working single mothers would fall by nearly half, from 28.7 percent to 15.0 percent, and two-thirds would receive a pay increase.” (Clark, Hartmann, & Hayes, 2014, p.1) It is important to notice here that how much of humankind living in indigence would gain from this.
The year the Equal Pay Act was passed into law (1963) the wage gap between a man and women working full time was 41 cents with women making 59 cents for every dollar a man earned. Since then, the income disparity has decreased by almost 50 percent. In 2014, the wage gap was 21 cents with women making 79 cents for every dollar a man earned (The Wage Gap Over Time). This 20 cent decrease in the wage gap since 1963 shows how significant of a difference the Equal Pay Act and its enforcement through Corning Glass Works v Brennan, along with other court cases, have been. The current 21 cent wage gap today shows that the issue of unequal pay based on sex still exists, and that more needs to be done to close this gap.
Shining some much-needed sunlight on the gender wage gap will make a difference for every one of us, men and women, right now.” (www.nytimes.com, 16). “It’s the twenty-first century, and the gender wage gap affects the daily life of women throughout the country, at every economic level, from cashier to CEO. Is it fair? No.
Gender equality: the pinnacle concept that American society is not-so desperately trying to achieve. Many Americans have convinced themselves that gender equality was remedied by the Nineteenth Amendment and the Second Feminist Movement, and have not considered the thousands of steps that are left on the journey. In recent years, a matter of public interest has been the gender wage gap, stating that women are earning significantly less money than men for doing an equivalent amount of work. Critics of the effort to “break the glass ceiling” claim that a pay gap does not exist, and that if it does, it is because women either do not work as hard, have to tend to their families, or hold lower paying jobs. However, the gender pay gap has been proven to exist in a variety of different forms,
It may be 2018, but the gender pay gap is still here, why is that? Women have been and still are getting a lower pay than men to do the same job. Women are doing equal if not more work, but somehow make less. The following paragraphs will explain what is happening today like the fact that over time men 's pay increases more than women 's does. Besides that I will also mention that not just white women make less than men other cultures make even less than them, and I also will share real people speaking up about them being paid less than men.
Women should request a twenty percent pay increase to even up the gender pay gap. In most jobs women earn eighty cents for every dollar a man earns for the exact same job. Employers should pay good, qualified women, who can competently perform their job duties, the same wages they pay men for the same work. Earning twenty percent less is a significant amount and it adds up over time. Throughout the years the pay gap has narrowed but it’s still not equal pay for equal work.
Annotated Bibliography Quast, L. (2015, November 22). The Gender Pay Gap Issue Is Fixable -- But May Require Bolder Actions To Overcome. Retrieved from Forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2015/11/22/the-gender-pay-gap-issue-is-fixable-but-may-require-bolder-actions-to-overcome/2/ It is reported by the Economic Policy Institute that although women had made tremendous records entering into workforce and gain great successes in education, but their wage is 83% comparing to men. The world forum also released a report in 2015 that women now make as much as men earned a decade ago.
The United States is currently facing an economical problem that involves males and female differences within the workplace. Males are given bigger and sometimes even better rewards for doing equal amounts of work as their female counterparts. Females are frequently not receiving the same wage even if they can complete the same job of a male. Also, females are less likely to get promoted within their job if they are competing against a male. A source states, “Women are now more likely to have college degrees than men, yet they still face a pay gap in every single education level,