Unequal Pay Sociology

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).

Errin Haines Whack notes in an article published in the Associated Press that there is more than just one wage gap. The racial wage gap is another issue that is arguably larger than the wage gap between men and women. Whack states that this wage gap – between African Americans and White Americans is larger than it was in the 1980’s in America. The main reason for this great divide; economic discrimination. More importantly, black women are seeing the lowest wages compared to white men and women as well as black men. Specifically, Whack mentioned the differences of wages, using the white man as an anchor for the year of 2015. A black man with an identical background to the white man earns 22 cents for every dollar of the anchor. Compared to the black woman who only earns 11 cents less than a white woman, but still makes 34 cents less than a white man’s dollar. Whack further cites that one way to decrease the gap involved attaining higher education.

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 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.

Women continue to face disadvantages in the workplace in regards to not receiving equal pay as well. There are many instances where women have the same or more qualifications to do a job than their male counterparts but do not receive the same pay. This difference in pay is not only related to gender differences but also racial differences. Women employees of different racial backgrounds tend to earn less money than their white female and male counterparts. Many women of color often face discrimination when applying to jobs and are overlooked for a position despite having the qualifications to do the work. When they are hired to these occupations they are not receiving the same pay as their white female counterparts. This double bind that minority women face within the work place continues to lead to economic hardships. Regarding women in the workplace in general, due to society’s high regard for men they are often not promoted to positions of authority or receive equal pay because people assume that women are inferior workers. (Buchanan, p205-207)

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

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.

According to (Gillespie, 2014) and The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the pay gap affects almost all working women, it is especially bad for Latina, African American, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian full-time female workers. In 2014, Latina women's annual salaries averaged just 54 percent of what white men in the same jobs brought home. When we look solely at the salaries of people of color, the pay gap is smaller — but only because men of color are paid less than non-Latino white men. Furthermore, white women earn more than African American and Latina women who have the same level of education — so the pay gap is a racial discrimination issue,

The fight for equality amongst the genders has been a long one for American women. Although during the country’s history, the government has granted many rights to women, in hoping for equality amongst genders, these rights have been poorly enforced. Many companies still pay their women workers less than their male counterparts for doing the same job because of issues like cultural bias. Women cannot seek for equal pay because of their ignorance to the specifics of the wage gap or because of the fear of retribution. While all of this still holds true, California has taken a step further in closing the gender wage gap with the passing of the Fair Pay Act in 2015 which bans pay secrecy and retribution for inquiry of earnings. It is hopefully only through the strict enforcement of this act and the setting up educational programs that California can hope to successfully

Equal pay is crucial for all women. Currently, no woman, no matter what race, marital status, or family status is making the same equivalency as a man. The statistics support this: women of color are paid less than white, non-hispanic men. Black women that work full time, year round typically only make 63 cents to every dollar a white man makes according to IWPR. This wage gap translates to a loss of about $21,000; black women are more likely to be in poverty than white women who have a loss of about only $7,000. On the other hand, in the most recent survey done in 2015, mothers are paid $15,000 less than fathers, implicating women get paid 71 cents to every dollar. In addition, single, never-married women in the workforce without children typically earn 76 cents for every dollar a male counterpart makes. No matter what category a women falls into, it is almost impossible to escape the gender pay gap.

Companies around America have unequal pay between sexes and the topic has brought up some controversy. Companies will say that it saves them money by paying women less. Female employees should not have a lesser pay than their male coworkers for the same work because unfair pay is illegal and women put just as much effort into their work as men.

Lips, H. M. (2003). The Gender Pay Gap: Concrete Indicator of Women's Progress Toward Equality. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 3(1), 87-109. Retrieved September 19, 2017, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1530-2415.2003.00016.x/full

Latin Americans are up to 70% more likely to be unemployed than their white peers, even with the same college degree (Rassuli). Hurtful rhetoric and racism also affects minorities, particularly immigrants and people of different faiths. This speech can particularly harm how safe minorities feel in America, as well as negatively impacting their ability to find a job or buy a home if the people around them subscribe to that same rhetoric. Immigrants are not the only ones affected, however. African American families are more likely to move down through the social classes, with black 30-year-olds earning 12% less than their parents did in the 1970s (Holland). The pay gap between black and white people, or the “race gap,” has risen to 26.7%, up from 18.1% in 1979 (Vega). There is also a pay gap between men and women, with women’s median pay being $0.77 to men’s $1.00. Even adjusting for the different jobs women and men typically have, there is still a small gap, with a woman earning $0.94 for every man’s $1.00 (Kessler). In addition, only 5% of administrative positions, such as secretaries and clerks, are held by men. In comparison, only 5% of Fortune 500 companies have are led by women

The pay gap affects women from all backgrounds at all ages and all levels of educational achievement, although earnings and the gap vary depending on a womans individual situation. Hispanic and latino, african american and others have lower median annual earning compared with non hispanic white and asian american womens. But within racial/ethnic groups, African American and Hispanic women experienced a smaller gender pay gap compared with men in the same group than did non-Hispanic white and Asian American

The origins of wage inequality traced back from the 15th century involved a political, social and economic structure where man was bound to each other through mutual ties of loyalty and service. This structure called feudalism encompassed a hierarchy where the King owned all land, followed by the nobles and knights to whom the King granted land in return for loyalty, service and protection. The nobles and knights leased their lands to the peasants, who would cultivate the land, grow crops, and raise farm animals. Every group knew its rank and responsibility to the other ranks and the goal was to preserve this system forever ensuring that the peasants at the bottom of the social network had a small or unlikely chance to upward mobility and