The Problem Of Gender Pay Gap Essay

In American society today there is an imbalance in the gender income gap between men and women in the work force. Many factors such as discrimination, productivity, educational background and disproportional hours worked contribute to this ongoing challenge. While many are skeptical, others remain to have strong beliefs that women and men are treated equally. In most professions according to Glynn “women only earn seventy seven cents for every dollar earned by men” (2014). Although, the seventy seven cents figure does not accurately reflect gender discrimination, it does capture some discrimination,

Thesis: The gender pay gap in the United States is an understated misconception to many men and women today. This paper will overview the reality, causes, statistics, and those being affected by gender pay gap, as well as what this issue means for the future of the United States of America.

A majority of women across the world are highly accountable for home duties, and child rearing, while men on the other hand are bound for working in higher paid salary jobs. As of a result of this, inequality amongst genders has turned into a controversy in the workplace. And due to this gender inequality, women have been led to poorly paid gender typed positions. The gender pay gap negatively impacts individuals and some elements that play a major role in this issue are: work experience, independent skills, specific length of time at a company, and the level of education the person has obtained. However, the

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 pay gap between genders exhibits sexism in America yet some researchers are in denial. Warren Farrell, expert on gender issues within legislation and former board member of National Organization for Women, claims otherwise. In his book Why Men Earn More, he attributes difference in wages to females choosing human resources jobs, which pay less, and not choosing harsher jobs that pay more (Farrell). His overall point is that men sacrifice more thus companies pay more for those sacrifices. His argument only compares the genders when different job requirements alter wages, but does not mention wages of identical jobs.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the state of Iowa, women only make 77% of what men make (Leith). That means for every dollar that a man makes, a women only makes 77 cents. The pay gap is the gap between how much women get paid and how much men get paid. Women make significantly less than men do. At the rate that this pay gap is moving, women will not have equal pay until the year 2152 (Miller). Some people will argue that it is this way because of the types of jobs that women take, but that is not the truth. The gender pay gap is the biggest issue facing our generation because it continues to increase over time, there are many factors that go into the pay gap other than just gender, and the wage gap results in

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.

Physicians make an average salary of $212,000 per year, and as of 2015 there is an almost two-to-one male female ratio: in the field of information technology, only 10% of software engineers and developers are women. And beyond that- men choose more dangerous jobs than women- hence them receiving compensation for the level of risk involved. Therefore, the gender pay gap is due to personal choices: there is nothing barring women from being successful. “Rational-choice theorists” claim that “one can generally predict… behavior by knowing the interests” of those involved “because they rationally maximize their interests;” hence why the wage gap is predictable. It is predictable because men are more inclined to pursue STEM jobs than women; it is predictable because “upwards of 75% of all caregivers are female, and may spend as much as 50% more time providing care than males. [Institute on Aging. (2016)]”; and, furthermore, the wage gap is predictable because men are more career-oriented, when as women tend to prioritize family above their economic

The gender pay gap is the difference, between women and men, in earnings expressed in a percentage. Women have never earned as much money as men have. They are paid less than men, which results in the wage gap or job inequality.

The article “Women Doctors Are Paid $20,000 Less Than Male Doctors” discusses a study that was done by Dr. Anupam Jena of Harvard Medical School that showed female doctors earned thousands of dollars less than their male counterparts over their lifetime. The article discusses how a doctor’s salary is determined, including age, experience, and number of publications, but also gender and race. Jena suggests that the main reason women are paid less is due to systematic sexism that allows for the wage gap to continue to occur.

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

Bashaw and Heywood’s (2001) is one of the research projects based in the United States that demonstrates the gender wage gap of physicians. Their research project accomplished this by utilizing the 1991 Survey of Young Physicians in which they queried 4,943 physicians about the physicians’ income, hours worked, weeks worked, wage, specialty, and other personal, family related variables. In the process of proving the gender income gap for physicians, Bashaw and Heywood also desired to disprove a past article’s claim that the gap did not exist when one focuses on the number of hours worked and the pay per hour versus the physicians’ annual income. Bashaw and Heywood realized that focusing on physician’s annual income is statistically more accurate

The article can be utilized as an example of gender bias and its effect on women, as well as location’s impact on salary. This article goes over a few of the different types of doctors and the wage gaps that exist between the different genders. The author, Kathryn Vasel, talks about the negative effect that the wage gap has on women. One effect that the article

Too often, both women and men dismiss the pay gap as simply a matter of different choices. But women who make the same educational and occupational choices that men make do not typically end up with the same earnings. As an eighteen-year-old woman, looking to possibly go into the surgical field, which is arguably a male dominated profession, the subject of equal work equal pay is especially interesting to me and my future. As an educated woman, being treated equally among my peers is a must. Obviously this form of discrimination is severely unjust and unacceptable, yet at this point in our modern-day society almost unavoidable. This is for our daughters, and our daughter’s, daughters. Women as a whole have to band together on this and raise the bar expected of women across the globe. We can be graceful swans, and we can be excepted as equals among men in the workforce, with our children, hormones, and feminine

In today’s society, the working industry and employers have made substantial progress towards gender equality pay in the workforce. However, gender pay gap still raises an ethical concern that exists between women and men as well as discrimination for the same type of job function. Since the mid-1900’s, women have struggled to gain the respect of the working class industry. Women in the workforce wanted to be treated justly and receive the same equal employment opportunities as men. In some cases, researchers state that women in the workforce will not get paid equally for the same job function because of discrimination of gender gap. According to one research study, “there is still a gender pay gap. Women continue to earn considerably less than men on average” (Blau & Kahn, 2007, p. 8). Although there is a significant increase in employment choices for women, how much women can earn continue to raise major concerns. In this essay, I will focus on how a utilitarian would consider how women should be paid fairly and treated with the same level of respect as men, with minimal or no gap in pay especially if they have similar qualifications for the job function. I will also point out the objection that utilitarian reasoning may not adequately apply since men have the higher ground because of education, workforce and tenure way before women started working.