Gender Pay Gap

The average woman in the United States makes approximately $82.90 for every dollar their male counterparts make. (Elsesser). While those 20 cents may seem inconsequential to you, they add up. Losing that much money all year can be the difference between someone living in poverty, and someone living a nice life. The gender pay gap is the cause of this problem. Around the world, women are losing money just because of what gender they are. The gender wage gap is a huge problem, that can only be solved by going to extreme measures, such as requiring people to release their employees wage gap and passing new laws.

Simultaneously, the gender pay gap has financial effects not just on the women, yet their families too. Studies have shown that American families with children count on a women’s earnings as a massive part of their family’s income, and many are the head of the household. Data demonstrates that “seventy percent of mothers with children under 18 participate in the labor force, with over 75 percent employed full-time. Mothers are the primary or sole earners for 40 percent of households with children under 18 today, compared with 11 percent in 1960. Women’s participation in the U.S. labor force has climbed since WWII: from 32.7 percent in 1948 to 56.8 percent in 2016” (Dewolf). Now women make up more than half of the U.S. workforce, the gap in earning deciphers to $7968 per year in median earnings for a high school graduate, $11,616 for a college graduate, and $19,360 for a professional school graduate. By and large, this gap effects hundreds of millions of women and their families, and lag them back hundreds of thousands of dollars throughout their life.

The gender pay gap is the difference in pay earned by men and the pay earned by women.( Pay Equity Commission, 2012). There are various ways in measuring the pay gap between genders, such as full- time or full- year wage. Statistics Canada data ( 2012) displayed that the gender pay gap in Ontario was 26% for full- time and full- year employments, which means for every C$1 earned by a man, a woman earned 74 cents( Pay Equity Commission,2012).The pay gap has been narrowing slowly over time compared to the how it was in 1987, which was 36%. However the gender wage gap is still a problem that exists in the society. I will discuss about the feminist theory and how it can be interpreted in the gender pay gap of our society, especially in regards to celebrities.

One cannot begin the discussion of gender pay gap without defining it. Simply put, gender pay gap is the inequality between men and women wages. Gender pay gap is a constant international problem, in which women are paid, on average, less than that of their male counterpart. As to if gender pay gap still exist, its exactness fluctuates depending on numerous factors such as professional status, country and regional location, gender, and age. In regards to gender, in some cases, both men and women have stated that the gap does not exist. Due to various countries initiatives to shrink the wage inequality between men and women wages in the work force, the gap has narrowed, respectively, which may have helped form such opinion. However, stating that the gender pay gap does not exist in today’s society, anywhere, is completely unlikely. Seeing that the gap has loosened its grasp in the working world, in other countries, the gap between pay has widen or remained stagnant. One cannot help but wonder why the gap remains consistent even with such substantial progress made in countries where the gap has decreased.

The gender pay gap in is the difference of paid between a man and a woman doing the same work. This is not just a United States problem as it can be seen across the world in many fields of work. There are many factors that contribute to the gender pay gap and there is not one clear solution for these issues. Regardless of a solution the results of the wage gap are apparent, it mainly effects women as it lowers their wages as they are paid less for equal work, have penalized them for having children, and shows bias within employers. It unfair that women are getting frequently paid less regardless of education, age, and field.

Many believe that those who don't have education can’t have wages that are higher than a minimum wage job. In some cases this is true but Hispanics and blacks who have received the same amount of education in a certain field to those of the Asian and White races still make less. However, looking just at those with a bachelor’s degree or more education, wage gaps by gender, race and ethnicity persist. College-educated black and Hispanic men earn roughly 80% the hourly wages of white college educated men ($25 and $26 vs. $32, respectively). White and Asian college-educated women also earn roughly 80% the hourly wages of white college-educated men ($25 and $27, respectively). However, black and Hispanic women with a college degree earn only about

The discrepancy of the wage gap grows substantially for more elite jobs. Males and females who have the same education and experience who go into higher paying jobs, such as doctors and lawyers, the female counterpart earns significantly less than males. This quote shows just how unjust the wage gap is that for the same amount of work, and the same education and education, males are still on average paid more. The higher paying jobs that require much higher education are not as forgiving to allow females to take a lot of time off work to have children. The females are making the wage gap by taking fewer hours to be a mother (Perry, Mark J., and Andrew G. Biggs). However, statistics say otherwise. Other statistics show to prove that women are not being paid significantly less in more elite jobs because a lot take time off to start a family, women are in general paid less per hour than men.This wage discrepancy is just dramaticized in elite jobs. Females are not paid less for the hours they take off, since comparing the hours between males and females, women are paid less on average per hour than

The gender wage gap in the U.S. has been a topic of debate in politics through most of the 21st century. In 2015, women were paid 80 percent of what men were paid (SIMPLE TRUTH). This number is considerably smaller than that of the 1960’s because of women’s progress in education and participation in the workforce (SIMPLE TRUTH). The wage gap can have adverse lifelong effects on a woman’s life. Because women are paid less than men, a woman will receive less social security, pensions, and other resources when they retire than a man would (Fischer & Hayes, 2013). There is a common stigma that women do not get paid as much as men because they do not ask for higher wages but not everything can be “explained

The Urban Institute published a case study that promotes the creation of national paid family leave policy in the United States. In the study, it is shown that this issue has been debated countless times in the past. George H.W. Bush even vetoed an unpaid family leave act during his presidency. This displays the struggles of enacting policy relating to this issue. The lack of a national paid family leave program in the US has left working mothers with three options: “return to work immediately after childbirth, quit employment, or take unpaid leave” (Urban Institute, 2017, p.3). The issue with these options include, loss of pay, unemployment, or the lack of parental presence in a child’s early development. Moreover, although some private companies offer paid leave, less educated and lower income mother have little access to this paid leave, which exacerbates their financial instability, keeping them in a lower societal class. This study found that not only is the current system is inadequate, but it is also inequitable, which causes financial hardships across the nation. According to the study, there has even been a 32% decrease in income after childbirth. Although this is the current situation, some states have enacted a statewide paid family leave program, which displays

In the afore-mentioned article by Teresa Wiltz, it did not go without recognition that work is being put in to help out the working women in our nation. Mark Dayton announced in November of 2017 to pay compensation for parental leave for six weeks. This is huge for women due to the fact that maternity leave is a large part of the pay gap issue. This proves to be working as it now shows that women in Minnesota make eighty nine cents to the man’s dollar. Other states such as South Carolina, Missouri, and New York are all formulating studies and working to create laws to help abolish the pay gap between men and women” (Wiltz 2). It is with high hopes that

Women in the work force suffer a great deal with multiple consequences for not only being a woman, but for being a mother as well, either married or unmarried. Research shows that mothers pay substantial wage penalties for having children. The average penalty one study found is 5% to 10% per child among women in their 20s and 30s (Anderson et al., 2003; Budig & England, 2001; Waldfogel, 1997). The motherhood penalty differs with race and ethnicity. Studies show that white women pay larger motherhood wage penalties than African Americans (Neumark & Korenman 1994; Waldfogel 1997). For African American mothers, only married mothers with more than two children will pay the wage penalty. African American mothers who have never been married do not pay a wage penalty. For White women, all mothers pay the wage penalty, married, never-married, and divorced, as long as they have at least one or two children (Glauber

The size of the gender wage gap varies according to which factors are taken into account, such as whether one works full- or part-time or for the entire year; the number of hours worked in a given week; level of education; industry; occupation; work experience; and/or career level. Researchers control for what they consider to be women’s career choices in order to base their wage gap calculations on apples-to-apples comparisons—and the wage gap appears to shrink with each factor taken into

Gender Pay Gap also referred to as Gender wage gap, gender income difference or male-female income difference refers to the difference between the earning of men and women (Victoria, 2006). The European Union defines the Gender Pay gap as the difference between men and women’s hourly earnings (OECD, 2012). The difference may be measured on hourly, weekly, monthly, or yearly earning. The difference is expressed as a percentage of the men’s earning. However, the difference varies from one industry to another, from one country to another and from one age group to another. On average, men earn higher than women do across different sectors and nations.

Poverty and ill-health are intertwined (Wagstaff, 2002). Poor countries, and poorer people within countries, tend to have worse health outcomes than better-off countries and people (Wagstaff, 2002). The poor tend to die earlier, have higher levels of morbidity, malnutrition, and mortality (Wagstaff, 2002). Poor women are not only challenged by the economic factor of the gender pay gap facing the same health problems of all those in poverty, but are further disadvantaged by being a woman.

Many times women are discouraged from doing a “man’s” job. There is still a very strong distinction between a man’s job and a woman’s job. Women who try and enter a man’s job face discrimination due to old stereotypes. Women who are hired in such fields often resign because of the macho environment they have to endure. This narrows women’s opportunities of entering higher paying jobs and they instead end up in low paying jobs such as child care, fast food, and housekeepers. According to the National Women’s Law Center, “women are nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers and two-thirds of tipped workers” (www.nwlc.org). The lower paying jobs often have irregular hours which make it difficult for mothers, especially single mothers, as it makes it difficult for them to rearrange for a babysitter. Women get punished by reducing their hours when they continue to call in or be late due to their irregular working hours and trying to find child care. Data suggests that “reduction in work hours can be accounted for […] the fact that women provide more unpaid care in the home, at least in homes with children” (www.americanprogress.org). Many argue that if women cannot handle such conditions, they do not belong or deserve to work in that field. At the same time, women should not have to endure such hostile environments or inequalities based on their