The wage gap is a serious problem that has consequences for women in America, our two parent families and our single mom households. The government tries to reduce the wage gap between men and women’s earnings and tries to make sure that women’s talents are properly used and rewarded. A lot has been done to relive the wage gap in the past fifty years, but it still is not enough. Women can do things on their own to help close the wage gap. They can get a non-traditional job or they can join a union. Women need to find out a company’s policy and discuss their salaries. The wage gap is a problem American women need to address, not wait on the government to fix it for us.
While participating in the student led units, I was able to see how large the wage gap for different genders is. I expected, due to the gender hierarchy, that women would make less than men, however, I never expected the wage gap to be as large as it was. This issues has stuck with me since the student led units because this issue is bringing America down the wrong path. America is supposed to be the land of opportunity, not the land of oppression. Like we said in class, the wage gap is starting to close, however, it is not happening fast enough. I have first hand knowledge of the gender wage gap because of my family. My aunt has spent her entire career working for different pharmaceutical companies handling their FDA submission. When my aunt was applying for a new job, she was talking to one of her friends who was applying for the same job about what she was offered as a starting salary. I do not remember the exact numbers that either was offered, however, I do know that her offer was significantly less than his offer. My aunt decided to try and negotiate with the company because she knew the amount they offered her male friends. My aunt was successful in negotiating this deal, however, she should have never had to. The wage gap is a serious issue that men and women face on a daily basis, but we rarely
The gender pay gap is like global warming. Many people can’t see it or always feel its effects, but it is very much a real principle that needs to be addressed. It refers to the fact that in terms of doing the same job, a woman is paid 79 cents for every dollar a man earns, according to a statistic from the Washington Post. Those who earn less money in general and live in poverty are
The poverty rate for all working women would be cut in half, falling to 3.9 percent from 8.1 percent. The high poverty rate for working single mothers would fall by nearly half, from 28.7 percent to 15.0 percent. For the 14.3 million single women living on their own, equal pay would mean a significant drop in poverty from 11.0 percent to 4.6 percent.” (Institute for Women’s Policy Research). The companies that act against the equal pay are not seeing the big picture, research shown that the gender gap have been hurting the economy “Persistent pay discrimination for women translates into lower wages and family income in families with a working woman. The gender pay gap also affects the economy as a whole: in 2012, the U.S. economy would have produced additional income of $447.6 billion (equal to 2.9 percent of 2012 GDP) if women received equal pay.” (Institute for Women’s Policy
In the beginning of the semester, during the first day of class we were asked what were some social problems that bothered us, interested us, or something we wanted to learn more about. The first thing I thought of was equal pay between men and women. With the ratification of the 19th amendment, women became legally equal to men. Then in 1963, the Equal Pay Act was passed yet. Yet today, the wage gap between men and women still exists. According to the White House’s official website, women working full time are only earning around 77% of what their male coworkers are earning. This problem is even worse with the factor of race involved. I feel as if this is an overlooked and forgotten issue. I don’t want to pay the same amount of tuition as a fellow male student, receive the same years of education, and end up having the same position as him making less money.
The gender wage gap. This is an issue that has been kept largely quiet and does not get even half the attention it deserves. The wage gap is simply the deviation in salaries between men and women. This gap in pay is an issue that spans the globe, and effects many people, from struggling single mothers to hard working corporate women. In W.E. Jacob and Laura Finley’s article “Differences in Pay Rates Between Men and Women do not Prove the Existence of Gender Inequality” attempts to debunk the discriminatory factor of the gap and rather using factors like experience, dedication to employer, time employed, and education levels explain the gap in its entirety. On the flip side, Teresa Wiltz’s article “States attack the pay gap between men and women” focuses on the effort being made by different states to squander the gap in pay, and the story of a woman who found out she was making $10,000 less than a new hire at her company. Both articles try to achieve their purpose. Overall, the latter article is much more effective because it recalls actual experiences from a real person, and real world efforts. Meanwhile, the former article’s argument relies on beliefs and hypotheticals.
The Center for American Progress suggests many actions that could help shrink the gender wage gap; here are two of the seven that they suggested:
Imagine you are a woman, you work very hard every day at work, then you discover out that you are making less money than your male coworker because of your gender. This inequality has been present in our society for many years, and unfortunately it still is. In America women are paid only 78 cents to each dollar a man makes. This is not a problem that only evident in America because studies have shown that the pay gap is actually much larger in South Korea and Russia.
This is an example of what some women in America face. Some people deny the existence of a wage gap while others argue that a change must be made for equality in this facet of the workforce. There have been many actions taken to give women equality, but there are still places where that has yet to be realized. Looking at both sides of the argument is helpful in learning the conditions under which the wage gap exists and the efforts to come to a conclusion or conclusions to benefit all parties involved. It is an issue that even the current president of the United States has voiced his concerns for. In this paper, we will be looking at the benefits and disadvantages that come from closing the wage gap.
“We have to pass pay equity for women workers. It is not acceptable that women are making 78 cents an hour compared to men,” said democratic candidate Bernie Sanders in a speech to the National Press Club in March of this year. 52 years after the Equal Pay Act was passed, working women in the United States still face a gender pay gap no matter what career they are in and while we have made progress since 1963, recently any improvement on the wage disparity has remained stagnant. Woman have historically been treated unequally to men despite their non-majority status, and even to this very day in the year 2015 are still treated unequally and discriminated against in the workforce.
According to the Canadian Women’s Foundation, the wage gap between man and women has existed since women has gotten into the labour market and this difference is due to many reasons such as traditions, the nature of jobs and sex discrimination. It is possible to notice the existence of a wage difference between both sexes in almost every industry in Canada, but the wage gap varies among the different existing occupations in Canada as well as the nature of employment could affect greatly the income differences. The income gap between man and women could vary as well because of the ethnic background of women which can make some women worse off than others due to their cultural
The gender wage gap needs to improve because it is hurting these women by suppressing their earnings making it extremely difficult to balance family and work, because children are dependent upon that sole income. Women were always subjected to casual sexism and domestic work. Doing the laundry, cooking, and tending to the children were their sole duty. Unequal pay for equal work should never be tolerated. I believe that gender bias is a number one factor for an unequal paycheck. Gender pay equity is even further away than originally thought. This form of discrimination violates human rights in every way. This topic is extremely crucial and important because it reflects the immeasurable discrimination women are facing. It is unsettling 21st century the workforce is comprised of half of women so there should be more
On average, women are payed 18% less than that of a man. This means that if two people are doing the same job at the same success rate, but one was a man, he could be payed anywhere from 35%-7% more than the woman. That’s almost $300 a week, if not more! The wage gap since 2014 has actually increased so now there needs to be even more exertion to try to close the gap. Not very surprisingly, women are over represented in low paying jobs and very underrepresented in the higher paying jobs. Disappointingly however, even in the higher paying jobs they are not being paid nearly as much as their male counterparts. This needs to be changed, there should be laws in place to make sure that all genders are paid equally, or at least a range that the workers pay has to stay
Inequality has been a dilemma for several years in countless different ways. A persistent problem with disproportion of income between women and men has been lingering within many companies in the United States. It has been said that women earn less money than men in the workplace for many different reasons. Some of these reasons are that women have not spent enough time in the office to be rewarded with raises and bonuses because they are busy with their home lives and taking care of their children, they, unlike men, have been taught to be timid and unaggressive which ultimately steers them away from requesting higher pay, or they do not meet the qualifications to receive promotions (Hymowitz, 2008). This essay is in response to On
There is nothing greater than the honor of being born a man. The invisible privilege of being a man is something that is not mentioned publicity, for the upset masses would revolt. One wonders why women even choose to be born as a woman instead of the superior gender. It is possible that women wish to play life on hard mode, for what fun is there in the life where everything is handed to oneself? One can just call up the local Water Buffalo Lodge and ask them for whatever they need. Does one wish to make more money? There is a shiny new job awaiting. Does one desire to go on a fifth vacation this year? Go ahead, they will have someone to fill in while you are gone. Women may be onto something here, for it might be too easy to be a man. In the western world, it is believed that men have a tangible and perceivable advantage over women, yet the opposite holds more truth.