Women’s Rights: Gender Wage Gap
Problem, Solution, and Barriers Paper
Problem
The wage gap is the difference in men’s and women’s median earnings, usually reported as either the earnings ratio between men and women or as an actual pay gap. The median value is the middle value, with equal numbers of full-time workers earning more and earning less (Hill, 2011). Nationally, women earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man, and in Ohio women earn 78 cents for every dollar earned by a man (The Woman’s Fund of Central Ohio). Not only are women receiving less compensation, they are also less likely to have an offer of health insurance from their employer, have retirement plans, or have access to paid leave (Stevenson, 2015). There is also an
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Solution
Since 2001, The Women’s Fund of Central Ohio has given voice and visibility to issues that impact women and girls. This non-profit organization and public foundation are a leader of social change in our community—addressing gender norms in order to create equality and to empower all women and girls to reach their full potential. The Women’s Fund is committed to creating lasting social change in four priority areas: Gender Norms, Economic Self-Sufficiency for Women, Leadership for Women, and Life skills for Girls. Their work they are doing for economic self-sufficiency directly correlates with demolishing the wage gap. According to their website, 1 in 4 women in central Ohio are not economically secure. Women are 2/3 of minimum wage workers. One can be a part of the work to change those numbers as they: move the needle for pay equity for women in central Ohio, improve workplace policies, such as paid time off and parental leave, and raise awareness for high quality and affordable childcare. What they are doing is creating gender equality and influence in the community by looking through a gender lens. They guide their work by research, which influences our partnerships, grant making, and advocacy efforts. They promote social change by growing women’s philanthropy, and raising awareness to educate central Ohio around issues that affect women and girls. At the Women’s Fund
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).
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 gender pay gap is the difference in pay earned by men and the pay earned by women.( Pay Equity Commission, 2012). There are various ways in measuring the pay gap between genders, such as full- time or full- year wage. Statistics Canada data ( 2012) displayed that the gender pay gap in Ontario was 26% for full- time and full- year employments, which means for every C$1 earned by a man, a woman earned 74 cents( Pay Equity Commission,2012).The pay gap has been narrowing slowly over time compared to the how it was in 1987, which was 36%. However the gender wage gap is still a problem that exists in the society. I will discuss about the feminist theory and how it can be interpreted in the gender pay gap of our society, especially in regards to celebrities.
Equal pay is a problem on a global scale. Over 145 countries have a documented pay wage gap (Werft). One would hope the United States would have the smallest wage gap, but in 2016, the United States was in only 45th place in the smallest wage gap (“Rankings”). In fact, most women in the United States only make $0.77 compared to a whole dollar they should earn. The state with the worst wage gap is Louisiana, with only, on average $0.69 for every man’s dollar (“Rankings”). One in three of the 15.2 million families headed by women have fallen below the poverty line, leaving their children to suffer in poverty
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.
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 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
April 8 is “Equal Pay Day,” which is an event where the main purpose is to raise awareness in regards to the social problem of the gender wage gap. The president makes his announcement that women still earn only about 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. There are people advocating left and right for women to take a stand and sue their employers for wage discrimination or make demands they want the government to fulfill. The question becomes whether or not what everyone is fighting for is actually true and worth fighting for. Authors Sarah Glynn, Kay Hymowitz, Mark Perry, and Andrew Biggs present a different idea. They all showcase in their articles the underlying factors in the gender wage gap such as college major, career choice, hours worked, job experience, and family circumstances. Discrimination cannot be ruled out completely, but the “77 cent” figure reflects gender differences based on the personal choices that people make about their careers, which results in the gender wage gap we have today. Society has been pointing the finger at discrimination for so long, but today we need to take a second look and come to the conclusion that there could be multiple reasons for the pay gap. This social problem is too complex to focus on only one particular reason.
The gender wage gap has been going on since the 1960s till today. The wage gap for full time/year round workers is 21.4%. A women’s median annual earnings is $39,621 and men’s median annual earnings is $50,383. The main reason for the wage gap is gender inequality. Society has made women seem weaker and less powerful than men. To really get into depth, the wage gap is worse for women of color. It is proven that women of color get worse pay than a caucasian woman. For latinos,
Wage gap is the statistical indicator of the significant difference of women's earnings relative to men’s. In America a
The gender wage gap is the difference in men and women’s annual salaries and can be found in every kind of job at all times. The gap stems from prejudice against women workers, resulting in women receiving less pay than men do for the same work. As of 1999, women make up sixty percent of the workforce and are the main income provider for four of every ten families. Yet, in 2015, the median annual income for women was $40,742 and $51,212 for men. That is eighty percent of what men are earning, or a twenty percent wage gap. In the past half-century there has not been a consistent decrease in the wage gap: in 1960 women were earning sixty-four percent of men’s annual income, in 1978 they were earning fifty-nine percent, and in 2000 they were
“We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons…but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.” (Gloria Steinem) Gender equality has come a long way, however, this topic is a constant theme many individuals, to this day, seem to dismiss. Women have addressed equality issues around the world to help broaden views on things that should be equal rights and equal opportunities, regardless of gender. In recent years, women specifically have shown the importance of gender equality through Woman’s Equality Day, the push for equal pay for equal work, and most recently, the creation of The United State of Women.
The gender pay gap is generally measured as the variance between men and women’s average weekly pay equivalent of full-time earnings, expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings (WGEA, 2017b). Unequal pay, where women and men do the same work and are paid at differing rates, based on
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