Women in first world countries are treated unfairly through discrimination in the workplace. No matter women’s positions in a workplace they are paid less than their male counterparts. A researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and his academia colleagues researched the different compensations male and female counterparts receive. Their research concluded that, women are exposed to a decline in a company’s market value. Also on average, women’s wages pay stops growing at age thirty-nine with a typical wage of $60,000 per year. However, men’s average pay stops growing at age forty-eight with a typical wage of $95 000 per year. An increase in market profit does not increase a women’s wealth as profoundly as a man working the same position.
In the law field, women “attorneys earn 80.5 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.” In the medical field, “female physicians and surgeons earn 64.4 cents on the dollar.” In retail, females earn “70.6 cents for every dollar earned by” male counterparts. Females in full-time managerial positions “earn 81 cents for every dollar earned by their male manager peers” and “female truck drivers earn… 76.4 cents on the dollar.” The remaining money from the female-male wage gap “may attribute to discriminatory practices.” The differences in income exist but “women work close to two-thirds of the world’s work hours [and] earn only one-tenth of the world’s income” (Graham 148).
In history, women’s salaries and earning were almost always lower than men’s. This inequality has continued until the most recent decades. The wage gap difference is getting smaller as time passes by. On one hand, it could be the rise of the feminist movement. Feminist groups fought hard for the rights of women. On the other hand, it may have been caused by the comparable worth policy which was emerged after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Act was implemented to eliminate any discriminations bias against one’s color, nationality, religion or sex. It has gradually raised women’s social position to a level closer to men’s. The comparable worth approach also reduced the wage gap for women and minority workers.
Many believe they are living in a country that helps the deprived succeed, but in one specific area the underprivileged are the ones oppressed. Much is unknown about how wages are distributed between coworkers. In the land of the free, one should be able to question their employer and not be at risk of getting fired from their job or reaping retributions from asking questions about pay. When women are forced to think of asking such questions, it denies the equality that women have tried for generations to achieve. At odds with what the United States preaches about “equality” in today’s modern society, men are still receiving higher pay than their women colleagues for the same work produced at the same job place.
For many years now it has been assumed that men are paid more than women are paid in many occupations in many countries. We often question, why there is a pay gap between men and women especially if they are performing the same job? Economist Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn took a set of human capital variables such as education, labor market, experience, and race into account and additionally controlled for occupation, industry, and unionism. While the gender wage gap was considerably smaller when all variables were taken into account, a substantial portion of the pay gap remained unexplained. These unexplained gaps are evidence of discrimination, which remains a serious problem for women in the workforce. In a standpoint refusing discrimination,
Women as a minority group concerning the wage gap, also known as the gender pay gap, is an older phenomenon that has gradually become more of a topic of concern since the 1960s. The wage gap is recognized as the difference between male and female earnings that is identified as a percentage of male earnings. In 1963 the Equal Pay Act was instituted declaring that it would be illegal to pay women lower wages simply based on their gender. The wage gap remains a popular area of active and innovative study and has been investigated for numerous decades. By further examining the ongoing discussion individuals can distinguish a connection between how women are rarely employed in high-paying positions, have superior educational achievements, and by some means still have significantly less earnings than men do. There are individuals who believe that women of different races are even more affected by the wage gap. This paper concerning the wage gap uncovers various opinions about what specifically prevents women from generating as much wealth as men. Although there are diverse analyses regarding what lies within the complexities of the wage gap, there is an understanding that women do suffer from a difference in wages compared to men.
Many institutions believe men are more intelligent than women in the society. The days are gone where women are labeled as inferior individuals, women currently perform even better than men as long as they are supported and well-equipped with sophisticated facilities such workshops and on-job training. Therefore, I am still surprised by the figures that women are paid in third world nations. Developed nations are supposed to serve as examples to developing nations by eliminating the pay gap between men and women both public and private
Over time there have been many discriminations against age, race, gender, religion, and ethnicity. An ongoing struggle for women that are as equally qualified as men is getting paid less. It is estimated that women are paid twenty percent less compared to their male colleagues. Women have been trying to change these statistics for many years. If women got paid the same as men, it could help benefit the economy, yet females with more education lose money due to the gender pay gap. The biological differences between men and women are inevitable, but there is no reason why a woman should be underpaid for the same amount or quality of work as a man.
“For every dollar a man receives, the woman receives 77 cents of that dollar (Female Power)”. The difference is not drastic, however; women have been fighting for this specific right since 1963, the Equal Pay Day. The Equal Pay act was implemented to stop the discrimination against male and female, however the changes were made. Furthermore, women who are working in lower paying fields are not being represented as they should. The problem only involves the highest paying groups such as law, business and medicine. In “The Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith, Smith claims that “The whole of the advantage and the disadvantages of the different employments of labour and stock must, in the same neighbourhood, be either perfectly equal or continually tending to equality”, equality being shown as an important aspect to our lives. Another example used in The Wealth of Nations is on page 107, “Fifthly, the wages of labour in different employments vary according to the probability or improbability of success in them.”giving a clear definition as to why women in lower paying fields are being as much as they are. It all matters onto how much profit the job succeeds. Women working with males is not the only problem. “A World Without Work” by Derek Thompson gives specifics details as to why the world is becoming more
Over the years it has become evident that women face far more significant barriers in the workforce than men do. A clear representation of this barrier is established by the gender pay gap, which is the difference in monetary amount received between a woman 's and a man 's average weekly earnings. The economy, as a social institution, is affected by gender and sex inequality. The idea of inequality in the workplace is central to explaining wage disparities and is a crucial factor that intervenes between a person 's human capital. Despite a woman 's depth of knowledge and commendable work ethic, there still remains significant obstacles to
Based on the article, 10 Surprising Statistics on Women in the Workplace, "Women make only 77.5 cents for every dollar that men make" (Collegetimes). Today women all over the world are being treated differently just because of their gender. Even in the workplace women with higher qualifications and job titles are losing promotions and higher pay to men. But not only is this happening to women but for men too. Some men who may not be as masculine as others may be discriminated against also.
The controversy surrounding gender inequality has been ever present. However, the definition and understanding of gender inequality appear to have changed over time as it became increasingly recognised that is a serious social problem that affects a significant proportion our society. According to Hirby (2016) gender inequality, is sometimes called sex discrimination, which means receiving unequal treatment based solely on gender. Women are believed to be greatest victims of gender inequality in the workplace. Despite decades of reform, statistics suggest that for every dollar a man earns a woman in a similar job earns just 77 cents (Hirby, 2016). This suggests that there are still improvements to be made.
It is common knowledge that women make less than men do. Over the years, women have conquered many obstacles and have obtained many rights in the workplace, however inequality still exists. In another article, we see that in the year 2010, women only made seventy-seven cents of every dollar that men made (Gender Inequality and Women in the Workplace). The gap of pay has been lowered, but not significantly. Our gap is lower than in other countries, but that still doesn’t say a lot. This is a huge problem because, aside from having a job in the workplace, women are also responsible for taking care of their home and children, which costs a considerable amount of money. The money that women make can’t really meet the needs they
The concept of a pay gap between female and male workers has been around for decades, this is because countless studies seek to justify why women earn less than men, and in many disciplines women are more easily subjected to discrimination in comparison to their male counterparts. This unit exposes many underlining factors that ultimately determine whether the gender pay gap truly exists in the contemporary Western hemisphere. The scholarly field that correlates to this unit is economics and gender studies.
Gender inequality is broadly understood to be the unequal distribution of economic resources between men and women. It is a nearly universal problem that women suffer from lower access to resources than men. Recent studies show that women’s position relative to men has improved around the world (Hausmann, Tyson and Zahidi 2007), and America is no exception. In fact, American values which drive globalization and economic growth may play a role in the worldwide dissemination of ideals of equality between the genders (Dorius 2010). So why does a country that values economic growth and gender equality have such a persistent wage
Significant wage gaps between the genders in the labor market are not a new phenomenon. Historically, women have earned less than men in the same job positions. Today this wage gap has diminished (60% earning in relation to men's wages in 1960 to 77% of male wages in 2011) but still survives. While it is easy to attribute this persistent gap to the umbrella cause of gender discrimination in the labor market, it is important to explore other foundations of this inequality in order to fully appreciate and address the problem.