Gender Wage Gap

“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

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

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