The Importance Of The Wage Gap For Women

The gender pay gap is a problem nationwide in the United States. It is a phenomenon that affects women of all education levels, ages, and races. Although it varies in a state-by-state basis, the pay gap is prevalent in all states (Miller, 2017). The issue is also occupation-wide, meaning that nearly every occupation will have a gender gap (Miller, 2017). Statistics from The Simple Truth About the Gender Pay Gap have shown that while an increase in education help women earn more, it does not eliminate the problem all together or close the gap (Miller, 2017). As of recent statistics, women are paid approximately 80 cents for every dollar a man makes, however, the gap is worse for women of color, especially, when compared to the salary of that of white men; African American women earn 63% of the salary that white men earn, Native American women earn 58%, and the largest gap is for Latina women, who earn only 54% (Miller, 2017).

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

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 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.

 “Women earn only 77 cents for every dollar men earn, with women of color at an even greater disadvantage with 64 cents on the dollar for African American women and 56 cents for Hispanic women.” — White House Statement of Administration Policy on Paycheck Fairness Act, June 4. [2]

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).

Women employees make less than men in the same job position. “It is an absolute scandal that American women continue to earn just $0.77 for every dollar men earn.” (Sen. Mikulski) There should not be a gender pay gap. Workers should be given salaries based on their work ethics, degrees, and academic credentials.

The gender pay gap in the United States forms a slightly mixed feeling. On one hand, after years of opposition to the earnings of women compared to men. There has been a large increase in women's earnings since the 1970s. The gender pay gap in the United States is measured through the female to male average yearly earnings for a full-time, year-round worker. Previously, a woman earned 77 cents for every dollar that a male gets. Since 1980, the gap has narrowed by 16.8 cents, improving from 60.2 cents to 77 cents, as stated by the Institute for Women’s Policy. The current pay gap between female and male is 82 cent for every one dollar. This growth is significant because it opposes the relative stability of the earlier incomes of a woman in the

There is no single agreeable number of how much a woman get paid less than a man. In Flex Work's Potential Role in Gender Pay Gap by Max Mihelich argues “Current numbers show that, on average, a woman earns 77 cents for every dollar a man earns” (Mihelich, 1) 77 cents is generally the number used to argue the wage gap, however there is some concerns of how this number was determine. Christina Hoff Sommers is a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, she believes that its just feminist, celebrities, and our politicians spreading this “wage gap myth”. In an interview Sommer stated that the way this number is produce is by “Calculating the median earning of all women working full-time by the median earnings of all men working full-time” (Sommer 4). She believes that this does not show a gender wage

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

The Gender Wage 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.

Women in the US typically get paid only 80 percent of what men get paid. According to Kevin Miller’s article, “The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap,”, “ in 2016, women working

Gender Pay Gap: Inequity, Work and Society In Australia over the last 20 years, it is documented that a person’s income and wages, differs based on one’s gender, known as the gender pay gap (The Conversation, 2017; Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), 2017c). This paper will discuss what a gender pay

     On average, women earn 74 cents for each dollar earned by the male population. This number is calculated by comparing median annual earnings of men and women. But several other differences between the sexes make up for the variation in pay. Work experience, education, background, skills, and other lifestyle choices account for much of the pay gap.