Gender Wage Gap Definition

The gender wage gap has been around since women began having jobs and careers. Though in the beginning the gender wage gap was purely do to discrimination by social stereotypes, now it has become more complicated than that. The issue today has evolved into a complex issue which combines our American culture with business economics. As a result, some are skeptical of the issue and some are very adamant in their beliefs. The issue encompasses not only gender stereo types but also educational, government policies and business’s best practices.

Meanwhile, the segregation of jobs by gender and other factors affect pay equity. A term used back in the 1980’s as a metaphor for the invisible and artificial barriers that blocked women and minorities from advancing up the corporate ladder to management and executive positions is called the glass ceiling (Hill, 2013). Louisville Women’s Careers Examiner argues “ Glass ceilings are still found in the workplaces, not only in the discrimination of pay scales, but also marked by sexual harassment, exploitation at work and as a feeling of insecurity in women due to conduct of the opposite sex” (Hill, 2013, p.33). Societal barriers that women tend to face are prejudice and bias, cultural, opportunity and attainment, gender, and color-based differences. Moreover, several other barriers women run into are governmental, business structural and internal businesses all of which have ramifications on their chances of success.

The gender wage gap has been a nationwide problem since women were able to enter the workforce. Women have begun to speak out more about the issue and evaluate what they can do to change the industries and how they personally present themselves to help this change. Currently there is a wide range of opinions on this issue, with some saying it does not exist while others think it will ruin the economy if not fixed immediately. This makes it more difficult to address the problem and predict how it will be in the future; however, all sides of the spectrum are becoming more aware of what the gender wage gap means and what they can do to change it. This paper will analyze the different stances on the extent of this social issue as well as the current practices being used to increase knowledge and equalize pay for all.

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 “Glass Ceiling” is known as an invisible barrier that stops someone from gaining more success. In this case it deals with women in the workplace, not being able to move up in a company. Even though no one knows who started the phrase, “A widely read Wall Street Journal story in 1986 popularized the term”(Napikoski). The “Glass Ceiling” has played a big role in women not being able to be

The gender pay gap in the United States has been a tensely debated topic since the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Although the Equal Pay Act requires equal pay for men and women, the issue of the gender pay gap has been a heightened issue as time has progressed. Phyllis Schlafly, Mark J. Perry, Anita Little and Sheryl Sandberg each address the gender pay gap in dynamically different ways. Phyllis Schlafly and Mark J. Perry firmly believe that the gender pay gap is entirely created by life choices that women make. While Anita Little and Sheryl Sandberg argue that the pay gap is caused by external forces. Each author addresses: creation of the wage gap, the severity of the wage gap and the viability of a solution.

But since 2000, progress has all but flatlined. A big underlying factor is the slowdown in women’s wage growth. That’s what helped propel the closure of the gap in earlier decades, but women have seen a standstill in wage growth since about 2001, as has most of the country.Women make less than men, on average, for a number of reasons. About 10 percent of it is thanks to different work experience, often because women are much more likely to take breaks from work to care for family members. The drop of women in the labor force over the last decade can be tied to the country’s lack of paid family leave, child care assistance, and support for flexible schedules.Some of it is also due to the fact that women end up working in areas that tend to pay less. But that doesn’t mean they can escape the gap by choosing different paths. They make less in virtually every industry and every job. And while getting more education boosts earnings, women make less than men with the same educational credentials at every level and even make less than their former male classmates when they graduate from top-tier universities. Some of that difference may be due to different majors or grades, but when salaries in the first year after graduation are compared while taking the college, major, grades, and other factors into account, women still experience a significant wage gap.Discrimination therefore plays a role. Economists consistently find a portion of the gap that can’t be explained by a variety of other factors. Studies have found that people of both genders are inclined to give men more money, especially if the woman is a mother. Meanwhile, women’s job performance is continuously underrated compared to men’s. Therefore in the workforce are discriminated

The extensive studies conducted over the past 50 years on gender based wage gap show that even though the gap has narrowed over the years, it still irrefutably exists. The laws such as The Equal Pay Act of 1963, which prohibit gender based wage discrimination, and The Civil Rights Act, helped reduce the wage gap over the years but did not help eradicate it. Numerous studies and scholarly research continue to show the differences in the earnings of men and women, for equal work. Figure 1 shows the wage discrimination from the 1960s to the year 2015.

The gender wage gap is the difference in men and women’s annual salaries and can be found in every kind of job at all times. The gap stems from prejudice against women workers, resulting in women receiving less pay than men do for the same work. As of 1999, women make up sixty percent of the workforce and are the main income provider for four of every ten families. Yet, in 2015, the median annual income for women was $40,742 and $51,212 for men. That is eighty percent of what men are earning, or a twenty percent wage gap. In the past half-century there has not been a consistent decrease in the wage gap: in 1960 women were earning sixty-four percent of men’s annual income, in 1978 they were earning fifty-nine percent, and in 2000 they were

Throughout history, even in today's world, women’s achievements are not valued as high as men’s achievements. This has been happening ever since rulers and social classes back in ancient rome. Even in today’s world, women are still discriminated against by females are paid only 84 cents per dollar paid to men on average. Others may say, the statistic that men are paid more per hour account to how females take more time of work, or that women just take jobs that pay less. Anti-wage gap people say that no one is stopping the women of America to go into higher paying jobs, females choose the lower paying jobs to go into by themselves. Nevertheless, the wage gap is not for these reasons, it is purely a statistic

The gender pay gap is a deabatable issue. Some people might say that there is no pay gap while others insist that there is an injustice happening. I am here to say that there is no gender pay gap. The reason why a woman would earn $0.77 to a mans dollar is due to many factors. Some of thes factors include profession, experience, and willingness to work longer hours. A survey was conducted by Georgetown University and they found that the top five well paying professions were all dominated by males except for one. This shows that the reason why a man earns more than a woman is because men choose to work in higher paying careers. Another study demonstrated that male workers were more willing to work more hours and do laborious work than women.

Since the 1970s the wage gap has narrowed, this is because of women’s advancements in education and workforce participation and the wages of men accumulating at a slower rate. (Polysyndeton)

The concept of “glass ceiling” is that women often face an invisible barrier in the workplace that they can no longer receive pay raises and/or promotions whereas their male counterparts would and continue to do so, thus creating the inequality between men and women in the workforce. This is obviously visible with certain positions, such as CEO that as of 2008 there is only 15.7% of women who hold that position. There are many reasons for the glass ceiling, gender and social expectations are the main reasons. The society is constantly evolving, usually for the betterment of the society, so as the result the rights for women are improving and on par with the men’s rights and how they should be treated everywhere, including in the workforce.

The glass ceiling starts to form itself very early on. From the moment a woman enters the work force after college, she is faced with much discrimination and unjust belief that she will not be able to do as well of a job than a man. A man and a woman, who both have the same education and training for a job, will have a considerable gap in their yearly income. In a first year job, a man will make approximately $14,619 compared to a woman who will make only $12,201. That is a pay gap of 17%(Gender Pay 1). There is no reason why there should be any gap in their incomes during the first year of their jobs. They have both had the same formal education and both have the same qualifications necessary for the job, yet

Women typically hold lower-paying, lower status jobs than men and the women who are in leadership positions are often held to a higher standard. This is often referred to as the gender wage gap, the dissimilarity between male and female wages. There are many theories as to the source of this discrimination. The glass ceiling effect suggests that there are invisible barriers that prevent women from advancing in their jobs or receiving well-deserved promotions and is considered to be a contributor to this particular gender