“Overall, women are paid 80 cents for every man’s dollar” (Ness n.pg.) One of the most prevalent topics in the last decade men and women alike have been actively working for equality in this pay disparity, and fighting to eliminate this discrimination against women. It is true a gap exists in the earnings between men and women; however, there are too many factors left out of the statistic to be as simple as discrimination. Employment statistics have shown that throughout history humans of different gender and race have different tendencies in the workplace, and jobs they choose. That is why the Gender Wage Gap does not have to do with gender discrimination because of such factors as specific occupation choices, average hours worked, and average …show more content…
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, on average among full time workers, men work 8.75 hours a week and women work 8.01 hours. The difference totals to 9% more hours put in on average by men. This is a major reason for why a gap exists between men and women, as there is a distinct difference in time put in by employees by gender. Full time jobs are considered to be a minimum of 35 hours working a week, and the “80 cents to a man’s dollar” statistic simply takes the earnings of all the individuals in that pay range. It becomes clear then that the statistic is ignoring a rather large work time disparity and making what a man earns in nearly nine hours equivalent to what a female earned in eight. The time difference between men and women’s work alone accounts for over one-third of the entire wage gap. For this reason the average time worked by both full time men and full time women proves that the wage gap is not due to …show more content…
Hymowitz, a writer for the Manhattan Institute, attests that woman more often than not choose children over a career. Because of the fact that women have to take considerably higher time off than men for having children, and without the guarantee of paid maternity leave, women are often paid much less than men during these periods. This is not due to discrimination however, as employers simply do not have the money, or do not wish to pay the money for work an employee that can not work. These often long periods of time and the physical toll it takes for women to go through having children tends to make it harder for them to return to the work force and entices many to choose motherhood. Overall the amount of time women need for often unpaid maternity leave displays why the wage gap is not
Numerous economists suppose that when work experience, education, and occupation are taken into consideration, women earn approximately equal to what men earn (Brittan & Onder 16). However, in recent decades, women have received more education, expanded their experience, and transferred toward higher paying occupations, so wouldn’t this mean that the wage gap would decrease? These economists state that since women, in general, are less involved in the labor market due to having children, providing elder care, this may lead to part-time work, meaning less pay than men, whom usually obtain full-time work. Also, women are also more likely to enter and leave work; women may lose their connection with the work force and may even regress professionally. While there are some factors that help explain the gap, a significant percentage remains unexplained, which is due to bias
In the article, Waldfogel states that “the gender gap in pay is greater in the United States than in any other countries with more fully developed family policies” (142). This again, emphasizes how the pay gap can continue to decrease more quickly if there were a more firm family policy in our
Lastly, take risk as another factor. Majority of the workers in nearly all the most dangerous occupations, such as iron workers and loggers, are male, and 92 percent of work-related deaths in 2012 were to men. Males are also more likely to pursue occupations where compensation is risky from year to year, such as finance and law. Research shows that average pay in such jobs is higher to compensate for the risk. Therefore, due to the fact that women and men do different type of jobs and work different hours, the gap in wage is not related to gender discrimination and feminism is again proven to be irrelevant
Maternity leave is the one thing that characterises the overall stature of women in the workforce. This is because it is the backdrop alluding to the basic human rights in the workplace, and yet, is the main cause of segregation in the workforce, highlighting gender
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
continued to be paid differently often with the men earning a higher salary. A bar graph presented in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Report titled “Median usual weekly earnings of women and men who are full-time wage and salary workers, by race and Hispanic or Latino ethnicity, 2013 annual averages”, clearly depicts this difference. Overall the men during 2013 made an average weekly earning of $860 while the women in 2013 made only $706 on average. This difference in earnings caused the total population of men in the U.S. in 2013 to earn an average of $154 more per week than women workers. Of these men and women, the white males made an average of $884 per week and the white females made just $722 per week.
It is time to face the facts and find solutions for this epidemic. To obtain a better grasp of the severity of the gender wage gap, it is important to understand the data. Per the textbook, out of full-time, year-round workers in 2010, the gender wage gap was 77 percent. This number is found by dividing women’s annual income by men’s. Various other ways of measuring the gap exist, but they are
The gender wage gap is a blatant act of sexism in which women get payed 80 cents to a man’s dollar. So why is it that work done by women is still valued less in modern day society? The answer when asked is women put in less hours in the office or the gender wage gap is just a myth. The gender pay gap is a very real thing happening in majority of the workforce. All these excuses are just that, excuses.
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.
By combining both hours spending in the office and taking care of the house and kids, men and women roughly have worked the same amount of hours (fifty-eight hours for men and fifty-nine for women) according to
The gender pay gap is a significant issue in the United States because it promotes institutional and internal sexism and the unfair treatment of human beings. An infamous statistic about the wage gap has been the 77 cent statistic, stating that for every dollar a man earns, a woman earns 77 cents. The statistic is calculated by, “...dividing the median earnings of full-time, year-round, working women by the median earnings of full-time, year-round, working men, all rounded to the nearest $100” (Glynn 2). This, however, represents males and females from all occupations, causing opponents to argue that, because it does not represent the gap between people who have the same job, a wage gap does not exist. Nonetheless, multiple studies have proven that a gender pay gap does exist within the United States.
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.
In his article, Mark Perry, the professor of economics and finance, argues if the gender wage gap is caused by discrimination. In his opinion, simply claim that women are paid less due to discrimination is “fundamentally misleading” and “economically illogical.” There are more factors that affects this issue. In addition to the physical differences between men and women, different hours of work, importance degree of children, and occupational selections also influence different earnings.