Wage Discrimination Against Women

Equal Pay Act of 1963 - On June 10, 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law (Fugiero, n.d.). It was enacted as an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which regulates minimum wages, overtime, and child labor (Fugiero, n.d.). The EPA requires that men and women who work in the same jobs or positions,

Due to these beliefs women are marrying later, having fewer children and divorcing more often. Men use to except that their careers would be more important than their wives’ and that they would do less child care, and because of these conflicting attitudes, women sometimes feel unable to work even if they want to. Also according to Stuart Sidle “the husbands work load had a strong influence on decisions to leave the workforce with women with husbands working over 45 hours per week having a greater likelihood of leaving the workforce than women with husbands who worked between 35-45 hours per week

For the same employer and for the same job in the US, on an average, women get 79 cents for every dollar earned by their male colleagues. This indeed is an alarming figure noting that women have come a long way in attaining education at par with men and are extremely competitive in every field they are working in. It is to be noted that 79.6 cents are calculated on an average basis. The actual figures for each different field of work are different and at least in one category, women get paid no more than 67 cents for every dollar paid for an equivalent job to men.

An interesting first fact is that John F Kennedy signed the law so that men and women will get equal pay on June 10 1963. This act was called the equal pay act of 1963 it was made to abolish wage disparity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Pay_Act_of_1963

As one considers a mother and her roles, one normally pictures her at home, cooking meals, cleaning the house, and caring for her children and spouse. After generations of oppression, women continue to struggle with getting the same opportunities as men, whether it be for jobs or for equitable distribution of parenting duties. In the past, it was more common to see the father work and provide for his family, but as time has progressed there have been more women who strive to be independent and make a life for themselves. The majority of American women are currently employed and experience economic independence; 70% of mothers are currently employed, compared to 42% to 47% in 1975 (Willis and Brauer). While the maternal employment has become

More and more women get employed every year. In a survey by humanresourcesmba.net, it displays the percentage of women working in certain jobs or careers. For example, 19% of women are C-level executives, 24% are senior vice presidents, 27% are vice presidents, 35% are directors, 40% are managers and 53% are in entry level positions. Now, in another survey by the same website concludes the percentage of each gender quitting, turning down a promotion, taking a significant amount of time off, or working fewer hours to take care of family responsibilities. The percentage of fathers working reduced hours are 28% and the percentage of mothers is 42%. Fathers taking a significant amount of time off is 24%, and mothers are 39%. Fathers quitting jobs to take care of family duties are 10% while 27% are mothers. Lastly, fathers turning down promotions are 10% and mothers are 13%. As the number of children increases, men work more and women work less. Unpaid work taking up the rest of their time. Comparing these percentages, women still do more for their families, although a percentage of men do similar, women still remain being the highest percentage. In another article by Mehroz Baig, “Women in the Workforce: What Changes Have We Made?” Explains how the amount of women working now has grown since before and continues to. Beginning in 1970 the amount of women working was about

Often there is this perception even today that males are the breadwinners for the family—why is it that females, still today, cannot be considered breadwinners? According to Pew Research, equal pay comes down to reasons why women leave the work force temporarily—reduction of hours to take care of family, time taken off to have a baby, leaving their job, or even saying no to a promotion (Patten, 2015). The biggest category of the aforementioned is the reduction of hours. Why is it only women reduce their hours to take care of family? Where is the unified efforts of the mother and father to equally take care of family? This author believes that if you first look towards that question, you can slowly over time dispel the still existent notion that women aren’t

The wage gap narrowed steadily through the 1980s and 1990s but the convergence slowed in the early 2000s. In 1980, women earned 60.2 cents for every $1 men

“Today, the average full-time working woman earns just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns...in 2014, that 's an embarrassment. It is working.”

Throughout the past century, we have seen a dramatic shift in the once solid family roles where men work and women stay home with the kids in our society. Today the roles of both mother and father seem to be converging into

Within Kimmel and Connelly’s (2007) analysis of such decisions, several observations were made. It was found that a greater increase in maternal childcare, home production and leisure time, stemmed from an increase in the husband’s income, and thus lowered the levels of participation of women in the workforce. Further, each extra child reduced employment time by 70 minutes per week, and the presence of another adult (e.g. the children’s grandparents) reduced employment time by 29 minutes during weekdays (Kimmel and Connelly 2007). This is worsened by the higher prices of childcare for younger children which increased the amount of time spent on maternal childcare during the week, and reducing time spent on employment. Sedo and Kossoudji (2004), expand on this by their finding that women are more likely than men to live in single-earner households with children, as the majority of single parents are women, and thus less likely to be wealthy at retirement as they spend most of their time and income on raising their children. Therefore, the decision to raise a child and the combination of the above factors have, as a whole, have brought down the amount of hours spent by mothers in the workforce, denying them the opportunity to earn significant incomes.

Every mother’s priority is her children. Mothers’ ultimate goal is to watch their children growing and reaching the best developmental and emotional milestones in every stage of their lives, and they realize that they are the cornerstone to achieve this goal. They are more influential than the school and the entire surrounding community. And, they are willing to devote all their lives to their children and sacrifice everything to build a bright future for them. Therefore, working mothers are in a continuous fear of the possible detrimental impact of their work on their children. They are anxious about not spending sufficient time with their children to have them grow healthier, not only physically, but also emotionally and mentally. Lots of studies evaluated this problem and illustrated that the benefits of mothers’ employment certainly outweigh the risks. Working mothers have a positive influence on their children; their children have an excellent academic achievement, have a sense of financial security, and are highly inspired to follow their dreams.

There is a large amount of valid concrete evidence to prove the existence of the drastic wage gap between men and women in the workplace. A recent study completed by the Center for American progress concluded that “women [are] still earning 78 percent of what men make. This means that though women are the primary, sole, or co-breadwinners in nearly two-thirds of families, they continue to earn, on average, 22 percent less than

Ashley Nelson’s article, “Confessions of a Stay-at-Home Mom,” is about mothers and what they should do about work when they have a child. Nelson argues that taking time off of work after a woman has a child can cause her to not be offered the same jobs or benefits as a non-mother or male. “Labor statistics show that while full-time working women without children earn 7 percent less than their male counterparts, women with children earn 23 percent less” (Nelson 413). She also states that mothers are less likely to be promoted than women without children. “The sense is that employers, consciously or not, demote mothers, assuming they cannot live up to the hours and demands of the work-place” (Nelson 414). Nelson also argues that women should keep some kind of a job after having children because they will be much more likely to get a new job or get their old job back with more benefits, better hours, and better pay.

For the past 100 years, there has been an increasing amount of market dependence which has modified household strategies. These household strategies have reshaped the constraints and opportunities faced by women. There still exists a wage gap that is a prominent problem that women face in society. The answer to these disparities with pay is motherhood, which acts as a barrier to full gender equality. The New York Times article titled “The Gender Pay Gap Is Largely Because of Motherhood” summarized what creates these disparities that women face. Having children can be damaging to the careers of women, “college-educated women make about 90 percent as much as men at age 25 and about 55 percent as much at age 45” (New York Times, 2017). Overtime these differences in pay pileup, putting women behind in the workforce. Women are physically forced to take time off for biological reasons such as giving birth and supporting their children. While men on the other hand, aren’t involved in giving birth therefore they can stay at work longer, getting ahead in the workforce receiving promotions by completing more work. Employers view this as an opportunity to pay women less because they aren’t at work as often as men. Gender inequalities are present in the workforce.