Essay About Gender Pay Gap

The Dark Secrets about the Gender Pay Gap

Biased. Cruel. Discriminatory. These are the words describing the gender pay gap that affects the nearly 1.5 billion adult women (ages 25 - 54) across the world. So, you may have heard that women earn 79 cents for every dollar that a male makes. But, what exactly does that mean? Well, gender pay gap is defined as the variation in pay between men and women. Women usually are paid less to do the same work. Gender pay gap is a hardship that women of all ethnicities encounter in the workplace.

Pay gaps are prevalent in nearly every occupation. Women that worked full time in the U.S. were paid on average 80% of what men were paid. Also, in jobs where most workers are female, such as social workers,

For instance, women take unpaid leave more often than men, often to take care of newborns. Did you know that if more employers offered paid maternity leave, women are twice as likely to return back to their original employers? In fact, women’s earnings can decrease up to 7% per child that she has. Sometimes education level can be a reason for a pay gap, women with master’s degrees still only make 72% of what men with master’s degrees make. It is certain that some circumstances can somewhat explain the gender pay gap,but the rest is left to another factor, pure discrimination.

If the pay gap wasn’t bad enough for Caucasian women, the pay gap is even more vile for women of other cultures. While, African American women make only 63 percent of what a white male earns in a year, Latinas make a shocking 54 cents for every dollar a white male makes. Asian women make only 81 percent of what another Asian male makes. It is undeniable that discrimination by ethnicity is just as big an issue as discrimination by gender