Gender Wage Gap From A Sociological Perspective Essay

Inequality is present in every corner of the United States of America. It comes in all different shapes and sizes; it may come in the form of race, ethnicity, sex, or even gender. To showcase how big of an issue it really is I will compare and contrast the differences between them. One of the most ongoing and present topics of inequality is race. The inequality often lies in the sense of income made by different races, the most common being white Americans making more than African Americans. In the 2011, the average income of the white American household was $110,000, while the African American household average was just over $6,000(Vega). The difference is jaw dropping, it would take no rocket scientist to realize there is some sort of inequality occurring between African Americans and White Americans. However, this is not the only type of inequality occurring. Inequality between gender is very similar to the inequality between ethnicities. The wage gap between genders seems to be the most prevalent topic among discussion at the present time. We fortunately live in a society and time where the fight for equality is very strong. We have seen so much change just within the past 5 years. “In 2015, women working full time in the United States typically were paid just 80 percent of what men were paid” (Miller). The difference in wage is jarring. From

The gender pay gap is the difference between male and female earnings averaged in percentages. This difference in pay due to gender seems like it would be an obsolete practice in the twenty-first century, but it is real and is affecting millions of women and households in the country. In 2014, women working full time in the United States were paid 79 percent on average of what men were being paid, which is a gap of approximately 21 percent. This means that in the United States, females earned 94 cents on average to every dollar earned by males. According to one study by the Department of Labor’s Chief Economist, a typical 25-year-old woman working full time would earn $5,000 less over the course of her working career than a typical 25-year old man working in the same career. The reason why this pay gap exists does expand into other factors such as education, experience, the work being performed, qualifications, age, and ethnicity which are taken into account. The studies being conducted on the pay gap has economists verifying that discrimination is the best overall explanation and factor of the difference in pay between males and females.

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.

The gender wage gap has been going on since the 1960s till today. The wage gap for full time/year round workers is 21.4%. A women’s median annual earnings is $39,621 and men’s median annual earnings is $50,383. The main reason for the wage gap is gender inequality. Society has made women seem weaker and less powerful than men. To really get into depth, the wage gap is worse for women of color. It is proven that women of color get worse pay than a caucasian woman. For latinos,

In 2015, Hispanic women earned fifty-four percent and African-American women earned sixty-three percent of the white men’s annual average salary, and those are the biggest pay gaps to exist. The annual average income for full-time Hispanic women in 2015 was $31,247 a year– that falls below the United States poverty line. There is a much smaller pay gap between the sexes in African-Americans and Hispanics because their men are paid significantly less than white men. During 2015, Asian women earned seventy-eight percent of the Asian men’s income and eighty-five percent of the white men’s income. This ratio is smaller because this particular ethnicity has the highest average income due to having the highest amount of educational acquirement. Race and ethnicity has a powerful impact on how a woman is affected by the pay gap.

In the 21st Century the number of women enrolling in higher education institutions is surpassing the numbers of men enrolled. The graduation rates of women from high school and higher education are most often higher than for men. The number of women graduates from most professional occupations, including higher paying medicine, law and business, will exceed the number of men graduates in the near future. In numerous occupational areas with a majority of women graduates, salaries already surpass salaries in occupational areas with a majority of men graduates.

The gender wage gap issue is prevalent in our society and drives many political and social discussions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states a 23% difference between the wages of men and females, and this data leads to the infamous idea that women make “77 cents for every dollar a man makes.” Many individuals interpret this by assuming that women are discriminated in the work place. Yet most, if not all, of the gender wage gap is a result of individual choice, rather than gender discrimination, and statistical analysis, personal motives/factors such as occupation, hours worked, experience, etc. show that the gender wage gap is highly inflated and misleading.

As Claudia Goldin, a professor of economics at Harvard University who has spent years researching the gender gap states, “By comparing the 469 occupations in the US Census, she found that women disproportionately holding certain jobs only accounted for about 25% of the difference in earnings between men and women. Factors within each occupation overwhelmingly accounted for differences in pay.” In her findings she found out that only 25% of the jobs do not have equal pay because of the type of work women are doing. This means that even with men and women having the same jobs, that the women will still get paid less than the men do. Another Economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn found, “Differences in occupation and industry explain about 49 percent of the wage gap, but 41 percent of the wage gap is not explained by differences in educational attainment, experience, demographic characteristics, job type, or union status” (Stevenson).This is just another statement backing up that the gender pay gap is not happening, just because women take lower paying jobs than men. It says that even if women do the exact same job as men, women still will get paid less than men do

The Article “Lily Ledbetter wasn’t lazy; she- and all women- just want equal pay” by Lanier Isom is about the gender wage gap. The gender wage gap is the difference between male and female earnings. Isom basically states in this article that the wage gap exists because of gender, however many experts state that the wage gap simple does exists do to a factor such as gender, but of multiple factors. These factors being that the statistics presented in favor of a Wage gap are incorrect and manipulated to seem correct. That the so called wage gap may be in fact do to the choice of job generally selected by women or, the failure to present evidence that completely contradicts the false statements made by the author.

The contributing factors represent the gray area of the argument on equal pay. The first large factor that contributes to the wage gap is the time period being evaluated. The U.S. has made substantial progress within the past century and a half since the beginning of the women’s rights movement in 1848 for women’s equality and rights (“History”). Women have come a long way since being looked at as maids, property, free work/underpaid, and had little to no rights. Today, women have rightfully gained the same equal rights as everyone else. Not until the past decade or two has equal pay been a priority. With significant push in recent years including the Equal Pay Act being passed by Barack Obama, a movement towards equality in pay began. The time period being analyzed changes the view of whether or not women are being paid

On June 10th 1963, the Equal Pay Act was passed. This was the first time that it became illegal for women to be paid less wages than men, but this paper will argue in the U.S. today the gender wage gap still exists. The definition of gender wage gap as stated by the U.S. government is defined as women who work full time or salary based jobs who receive less earnings than their male counterparts who work equal level jobs (“Equal Pay,” n.d.).[] This analysis will focus on the years of 2012 to 2014, and in these years it is clear that the gender wage gap exists. The topic of gender wage gap sociologically important for many reasons. The most obvious being that women who are in a position that requires them to provide for others will have less money than they should based on their job and skill set. Secondly, being that if women are making less than men for the same amount of skill and work, the workplace is telling the woman that the man is more valuable for the same work, thus saying that the man is superior to the woman. All in all, the gender wage gap has poor sociological implications, and the data analysis in the following paper will prove its existence.

Throughout the United States, the wage gap varies, likely due to increases and decreases in sexism throughout different regions. Women earn an average of as much as ninety percent of a male’s wages in the District of Columbia and as low as sixtyfive percent in Louisiana. Additionally, the gap increases based on the minority of races, bringing in the racism factor. Latina women earn the least compared to caucasian males at fifty four percent and Asian Americans at the highest with ninety percent (Hill). The gap also varies based on the career field the individuals are working in.

For women, “..nationally:wages were 81.1 percent of men in 2015 v.s. 82.5 percent in 2014” (Lanser). Not only is the amount of earnings smaller for females, but that gap itself never ceases to exist and has grown wider. Also according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor , “Women’s median weekly earning in the state of California running 15 percent below a similar benchmark for the male workers” (Lanser). One might think 15 percent is not too bad, but how about when that amounts to a “ $7,000 annual shortfall?” (Lanser). $7,000 can do a lot for a person, and unfortunately this gap of income has yet to be focused on. Even worse, the minority women, such as those who hispanic are paid even less than a caucasian women. The average “african American women earned 64 cents” and for Latina women, they earn about “56 cents for every dollar earned by a caucasian man”(MAKERS). There is no denying theses statistics; even minority women know the challenge of unequal pay. Now, even as important faces in today's culture such as Jennifer Lawrence and Hillary Clinton are calling out the gap, it becomes crucial to acknowledge and mend the

Feminism, a word defined as “The advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of equality of the sexes.” by the Oxford DIctionary. It is the ideology that everyone deserves to be treated equally regardless of their gender. In this formal writing I will discuss the importance of feminism and why, even though males are treated better than females, it is important to have equal rights between all people. For my first paragraph I will discuss the gender wage gap and why it is unjustifiable to underpay females on the basis of their gender. For my second paragraph I will talk about some of the most influential females in the world and illustrate why female role models are an important commodity in today's society and in the development of women's

Although it is nearly 2017, American women still fight to overcome discrimination as generations before them did. Instead of prospering in their careers, women often flounder because they are not being paid the same salary as their male coworkers. The wage gap can vary among different individuals living in the United States. One report by the American Association of University Women proves this point. “In 2013, the average American female worker made 78 cents for every dollar earned by a male” (Lee). Which is not right. How come both genders are doing the same job and only one gender makes more than the other? In order to close the pay gap between the genders, women need to find well-paying jobs and prosper in