Equal Work, Equal Pay “For women ages fifteen to twenty-four who work full-time and year round, the wage gap is $4,373. By the time they reach the age of forty-five to sixty-four, they earn $15,404 less than men per year” (Holmes). Wage gap is the difference between women’s and men’s earnings, and the earnings of different races. Wage gap not only affects women and individuals of different races, but it also affects the society. Equal pay could improve the American society in many ways. The American economy is distressed by the fact that a wage gap continues to exist between the sexes and different races. Some may argue that men deserve more money than women. For instance, people might say that men work harder and more hours than women. Additionally, people also debate that men work harder jobs than women, and that women do not go into the same careers as men to get paid the same. To summarize, some do not believe that there is a problem with the fact that there is a wage gap. GENDER WAGE GAP Initially, gender wage gap is real and it hurts women all across the world. According to a Pew Research Center analysis, women earned 83% of how much men earned in 2015 (Patten). This means that it would take about forty-four extra days of work to earn the same as men. Every educational level has a wage gap. Men who have an advanced degree have an hourly wage of $45.84, and women who have an advanced degree make $33.65 per hour (Schieder). That is a difference of $12.19. Fourteen
Even though that was twelve years ago, there still is gender inequality regarding the gender pay gap. Women today are still not making as much as men. Today, on average a woman earns 78 cents per dollar earned by a man. (O’Brien, 2015).
The gender wage gap in America is a social problem that has existed since women entered the workforce. According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, for every dollar earned by a man, a woman made 78.3 cents in 2013 (Leon-Guerrero, 2016). Data from 1983 to 1998 and concluded that women workers in their prime earning years make 38% of what men make. During the 15-year period, an average prime-age working woman earned only $273,592 compared with $722,693 earned by the average working man in 1999 (Leon-Guerrero, 2016). The wage gap affects women of color in a more profound way that it does non-hispanic white women. Hispanic women are making 53%, African American women are making 64%, and Asian American women are making 87% of white men’s earnings each year (AAUW, 2013).
According to the US Census Bureau, in 2010 the median earnings for women were $36,931 compared to $47,715 for men. [3] The majority of college degrees earned in the US are by women, and yet a study according to the American Association of University Women found that these educated graduated women are starting out with earning 5 percent less than their male peers. This was after several factors were taken into account, such as experience, training, and what school women earned their degrees from. Their study summarizes that, “In this analysis the portion of the pay gap that remains unexplained after all other factors are taken into account is 5 percent one year after graduation and 12 percent ten years after graduation.” – Behind the Pay Gap, American Association of University Women, Dey, Judy Goldberg
The gender wage gap between men and women needs to be brought to people’s attention due to the cause of unequal amount of pay for the exact same job. Our question is what is a gender pay gap? A gender wage gap is when you take the gap between both men and women’s pay and get a certain percentage and that is the gap between the two. This is a definition of gender pay gap according to an Australian Government article, “A gender pay gap is the difference between women’s and men’s earnings, expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings.” Basically, you take the difference, or subtract, between men’s and women’s earnings all over, divide, the men’s earnings and you get a percentage of the gap if there is any. Now, statistics have shown that the women’s gap has narrowed some since the 1980’s, but it still continues. Adult women showed that the wage gap is smaller compared to the teen wage, 90 cents for every dollar made by a man. Said by the article Fact Tank, “...adults ages 25 to 34, the 2015 wage gap is smaller. Women in this group earned 90 cents for every dollar a man in the same age group earned.” Women within the age group of 25 to 34 gain 90 cents for every dollar a man within the same age group earned. If you truly think about it sure the gap is slightly smaller, but why is it not equal? They are around the same age and are doing the same job, whether it be part- time or full time. Now it was also stated within this article that these women, by estimation, would have to work around 44 days extra in order for them to earn what their counterpart made in 2015. However, how does it get like this? Is it possible that even with same or
“Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work” -Susan B. Anthony. Countless women, even here in the U.S. have some sort of the wage gap. The wage gap is the difference between the median earnings of women relative to median earnings of men. In this case, women earn a significant amount less than men. Although the wage gap has gotten smaller over the years, the wage gap still has a long way to go. Women deserve better than just minimum earnings. Full time, working women should obtain the best promotions and benefits. Women that work just as tough and have the equivalent qualifications as men do still earn less, and that is just unacceptable. The wage gap should be abolished on behalf of women of color and their struggle, equal pay is a global problem, equal pay benefits employers and workers, and the wage gap accumulates over time.
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.
On a broader aspect, it says men and women are equal. Though at a bottom level, women are still struggling to occupy the same status as men in the outer world. Stratification between the two genders is seen everywhere including the household or the workplace. Even today, women still earns less as compared to men involved in the same profession. Like a male physician makes $140,000, while a female in the same profession makes $88,000. Statisticians at the US census bureau looked at almost 821 occupations. After adjusting for workers’ ages, education and work experience, they found a substantial gender gap in the earnings of the workers. Scholars at the Census Bureau studied several characteristics and after taking into
In a 2015 study, it is shown that the wage gap can even seem to increase at higher degrees of education. For men and women with less than a high school diploma, the wage gap is at about 20%. Surprisingly, for men and women with an advanced degree, the wage gap is 26%. While The wage gap steadily closed at a relatively rapid pace between the 1960s and 1990s, improving from a 60 percent gap to a 71 percent gap. But since 2000, progress has all but flatlined. Men earned $50,400 at the median in 2014, while women earned $39,600. Neither gender has seen a significant increase in their median earnings since 2009, and women’s 2014 median earnings were not statistically different than what they made in 2007. In conclusion, this is a big issue across the nation, and shown by statistics, not much has been done in the recent
2015. There is a pay gap in America where men are paid more than women even if they have the same job and have the same qualifications. On average, a woman earns 74 cents to every man’s dollar. When someone first graduate’s college and is new to the workforce, the gap as low. The gap grows as you move up the job ladder. Only 5% of the fortune 500 companies have CEO’s that are women. Even when women advance to this level, they are still not being paid the same as their male counterparts. Minority women have an even bigger pay gap. African-American women get paid on average about 64 cents for every man’s dollar, while Hispanic women only bring home around 54 cents for every man’s dollar. There is no industry or state where women earn the same or more than
Unequal pay is something that has been an issue in America for a very long time. Gender has been one of the main culprits that played a factor in the wage gap between men and women, but race may have a role. The wage gap is expressed as a percentage (e.g., in 2013, women earned 78.3% as much as men aged 16 and over) and is calculated by dividing the median annual earnings for women by the median annual earnings for men. (“The Wage Gap”)
Even though men and women who work in the same work place doing the same exact job should be getting the same exact pay, also known as the Equal Pay Act of 1963, this matter is still a constant battle. For example, women earned 79 cents for every dollar that a man earns (whitehouse.gov). This statistic, referred to as the gender gap, has been reoccurring for decades and although the numbers have changed throughout the years, the gap
Although many people are now bringing up a pay gap between genders, there is something being over looked that proves there isn’t a pay gap, but something else. The Gender Income Gap is a supposed payment gap between men and women, stating that to every man’s dollar a woman only gets payed seventy cents. Statements like theses can grab people’s attention and get them to believe this without much proof of it actually existing. Most people get there information about the gap from surveys over all women and men average pay, this is not a good representation of the topic because it doesn’t go into any detail of actual jobs and difference of pay. There are many other factors that going into the pay gap that would make it into something else not necessarily a pay gap. There are several solutions for this problem most of them aren’t necessarily for equality but for the gain of one sex at the cost of the rights of another. The one I will be talking about later doesn’t need government intervention and doesn’t need for one sex to do more. This solution will come from “changes in the labor market, especially how jobs are structured and remunerated to enhance temporal flexibility.”1
In reality though, women earn the same amount of degrees and sometimes even more. They even work full time, when men sometimes work part-time, but yet there is still a huge gap between their payments. Research proves that in any job a woman takes, a man would still earn more. Women are also human beings who live and strive on Earth, not just people who serve others and do housework. They also need a good amount of money in their payments, but if we let the gender wage gap strive, then women will be working for free at one point of time.
Research has identified several factors that contribute to the difference between wages paid to women and wages paid to men, commonly called the gender wage gap. Many say that these differences in the choices and behavior of women and men in balancing their work, personal, and family lives. These factors include, the occupations and industries in which they work, and their human capital development, work experience, career interruptions, and motherhood. Other factors are sources of wage adjustments that compensate specific groups of workers for benefits or duties that disproportionately impact them. These factors include health insurance, other fringe benefits, and overtime at work (Webster, 2013). The gender wage gap, the observed difference between wages paid to women and wages paid to men, has been a source of both political controversy and economic research throughout the past several decades. The gap is commonly measured as the ratio of the median earnings of women and the median earnings of men, which indicates the proportion of the median male earnings that the median female earnings represent (Webster, 2013). When the ratio is calculated for all men and women who are paid wages or salaries or for all wage and salary earners who work full-time and year-round, the measure is often called the raw gender wage gap.
Even though both images describe the topic of gender discrimination in the work environment, they are very different. In the first illustration with the children, the photograph is sarcastic and meant to emphasize how gender plays a major role in salary. In the political cartoon, it’s meant to be humorous as well as informative. Women are still struggling with equal pay and President Obama is not helping the issue. Both authors favor equal pay for equal work by shedding light as well as putting the blame. In the poster, the author makes it seem like its women’s fault that they don’t deserve equal pay in a sarcastic manner. In the political cartoon by McKee, he blames President