Beatty Samuelson Essay

As long as an American woman is putting in the same amount of hours with the same qualifications and experience in the same occupation as an American male, and yet taking home a wage that is any lower, she is not being treated fairly as an equal. Contrary to many arguments, it’s undeniable that a wage gap exists, and while there are various ideas as to the most probable cause, there is no reason why this gap should continue to go uncorrected or unchanged. Our government should take concrete steps to close the gender wage gap because it violates women’s rights and equality.

After years of Civil Rights Movements and Pay Equity Acts, as of 2014, women still only make 79 cents to a man 's every dollar. Although the wage gap has shrunk since the 1970’s, progress has recently stalled and chances of it vanishing on its own is unlikely. The gains that American women have made towards labor market experience and skills is tremendous. In fact, women account for 47% of labor workforce and 49.3% of American jobs. But despite of women’s strides, a gender pay gap still exists. Experts suggest that it will take 100 years to close the gap at the rate employers and legislators are working to create solutions. But by allowing women to work in higher paying positions and by proposing and updating pay equity laws, the gender gap can finally be diminished.

In American society today there is an imbalance in the gender income gap between men and women in the work force. Many factors such as discrimination, productivity, educational background and disproportional hours worked contribute to this ongoing challenge. While many are skeptical, others remain to have strong beliefs that women and men are treated equally. In most professions according to Glynn “women only earn seventy seven cents for every dollar earned by men” (2014). Although, the seventy seven cents figure does not accurately reflect gender discrimination, it does capture some discrimination,

According to statistics, there are disparities with pay in the workplace. Men are paid more in wages, comprehensive packages, and benefits than women who performed the same job responsibilities and roles in the workplace. The big question is why are women being unvalued? Since, this is a common practice in the workplace, is this fair to both genders and is this the most favorable outcome for the greatest number affected by this business practice? The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was passed to eliminate this type of discrimination based on sex with paying wages to employees, in such establishment at a rate less than the rate at which pays, wages to employees of the opposite sex for equal work on jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions.

Ninety-five years ago the nineteenth amendment was passed giving women in America the right to vote (America’s Historical Documents), this was a pivotal step for women rights. Since then women’s rights have increasingly advanced throughout America: in politics and in the workforce. In fact “women today make up almost half of all worker in the United States” (The State of Women in America). Sadly though, women are paid less than males in the workforce. "Women in the United States are paid only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes" (The State of Women in America). One question that derives from this topic is: why are women still not getting paid as much as men? Women should get paid as equally as men do. A fair argument to make against the topic is the difference in the types of work a woman and a man does (Debate). For example in construction men are tasked with most of the heavy lifting as opposed to a women that do not have as much

Gender equality is something that has been a problem through the ages. Susan B. Anthony and many others fought for the right to vote which was granted in 1920. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law stating that no employer can discriminate based on gender. The American Association of University Women published a graph on Women’s Median Annual Earnings as a Percentage of Men’s Median Annual Earnings for Full-time, Year-round Workers, 1974-2014 and it shows that in 1974, women were paid 59% of what men were paid. The graph shows the improvements over the years and that in 2014, women were paid 79% of what men were paid. The gap has not budged since 2014. The gender pay gap has improved over the years, but it will not close until new legislation passes.

Throughout the 20th century, one of the most controversial topics is the equality of men and women. From the workplace to the athletic fields, many activists have made it their life’s work in order to see women able to have the same opportunities as their male counterparts. In some cases, there has been legal action made in order to facilitate these reforms and ensure that they will be enforced. In most cases, these laws have accomplished exactly what they have set out to do. The nineteenth amendment allowed for the suffrage of women, and Executive Order 11246 prevents any employer from discriminating anybody in the hiring process and in employment, to include equal opportunity as far as advancement and salary are concerned. Both of these have

Inequality between different groups of people within the United States is concerning for many sociologists and society in general. One of the main inequalities throughout the United States is gender inequality. Gender inequity is found in all past and present societies. It takes the form of patriarchy. From the patriarchal point of view, gender inequality can be traced back to biological differences in early societies (“Steven Goldberg on Patriarchy” 2006). This inequality is present in society through many different forms, including job segregation, the gender pay gap, and a great difference in women’s political representation (Joan Acker, 1989).

An important federal employment law that all employees and employers should be aware of is the Equal Pay Act of 1963. As conversed in week nine of class discussion and video lecture, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 ends wage disparity based on sex. The main goal of this act was to ban discrimination in wages, benefits, and pensions based the gender of an employee in any place of employment. Women traditionally earned less than men for doing similar work. The United States has had a long history of knowledge of unequal pay between men and women, but it was not until around World War II that the problem arose and women started fighting for their rights on this issue. Women have tried passing several bills to help close this pay gap throughout the 1950’s, but ended up in failure.

The equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was at first created to protect against racial discrimination, but the Supreme Court later expanded the clause to also providing equal treatment amongst different races. The clause says, “No state shall…deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws” (U.S. Constitution. Art./Amend. XIV, Sec. 1.) A person could not be discriminated upon solely because of his or her race and if the law treated a group of people differently, then a valid reason for the discrepancy of different treatment must exist. Racial minorities, but mainly women, have historically been subjected and made vulnerable to harsh restrictions on activities such as voting, attending college, and working as lawyers. These restrictions, based on stereotypes overlooked the actual capability and potential of each individual woman. For many cases dealing with discrimination of women, the Court looked to another important element of equal protection, which stated that unfair treatment couldn’t be based on immutable distinctions, such as race and gender, because those fixed distinctions are uncontrollable and unrelated to ability. In the case of Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U.S. 677 (1973), the Supreme Court was just one vote short of adopting gender as a suspect classification. In United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996), women rights supporters were very pleased with the Supreme Court’s ruling and remain

Women have made significant strides in society, proving themselves to be as capable as men in the workforce. However, while women are making equal contributions, men and women are not earning equal wages. Even though the Equal Pay Act was established in 1963, women continue to earn lower wages than men over half a century later. This inequality not only affects women as individuals but has a detrimental effect on the national economy. The gender wage gap in the United States should end because it is unjust; correcting it would have social and economic benefits for the U.S.

It has been more than fifty years since the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was enacted, yet gender pay gap still exists today. According to National Women’s Law Center, women are paid only 80 cent for every dollar their male counterpart are paid. According to American Association of University Women, the total estimated loss of earnings for women compared to men over the course of 45 years are $700,000 for a high school graduate, $1.2 million for a college graduate, and $2 million for a professional school graduate. Although there are many factors that are responsible for gender pay gap, 40% of the pay gap is due to discrimination according to a report by the Joint Economic Committee Democratic Staff. By discriminating women, we, as a society, are telling

The pay gap between genders exhibits sexism in America yet some researchers are in denial. Warren Farrell, expert on gender issues within legislation and former board member of National Organization for Women, claims otherwise. In his book Why Men Earn More, he attributes difference in wages to females choosing human resources jobs, which pay less, and not choosing harsher jobs that pay more (Farrell). His overall point is that men sacrifice more thus companies pay more for those sacrifices. His argument only compares the genders when different job requirements alter wages, but does not mention wages of identical jobs.

Carr argues that bluffing in business is closer to the strategic bluffing normally found in poker, than it is to bluffing in private life. (Carr paragraph 2) He uses a quote from Henry Taylor to describe bluffing in poker and business: “falsehood ceases to be falsehood when it is understood on all sides that the truth is not expected to be spoken” (Carr paragraph 3). He argues that several people lie about their opinion if their job or their business could suffer if they answered truly, and that this is considered an acceptable business strategy (Carr paragraph 4). Two examples of deception in the hiring process are given; one where the applicant chooses the options he thinks his employer would most agree with and another where the applicant lists himself as younger than he actually is in order to increase the odds of being hired (Carr article, section: Pressure to Decieve). The author mentions that both fall within acceptable business ethics. These examples serve to illustrate the discrepancy between private ethics and the ethics of public business.

“The whole world is run on bluff”-Marcus Garvey. (Garvey, 2017) What is bluffing and what does it mean? In its simplest form bluffing is to deceive someone by making them think you are going to do something you have no intention of doing or you give the impression that you know something that you have no knowledge of or you pretend to be someone you are not. Bluffing in many cases has become the norm and has been accepted by many in the professional world. (Carr, 1968) Most of us know someone who has bluffed in an interview or on their Curriculum Vitae (CV) but is this legal or even moral? Can bluffing be acceptable as game strategy or is it just a fancy word for lying? Progressively people are choosing honest business practices because a bluff may damage your reputation significantly. We ask the question “to