From the beginning, history has proven that women have constantly been classified as the weaker gender. In some biased opinions, women are often thought of as mothers and homemakers. Throughout history, women have had to fight for their rights; while men had theirs handed to them at birth. Such discrimination against women as it relates to the workplace, has led to laws being placed to stop discrimination based on gender. This paper is centered on the gender pay gap and gives some common perceptions about the issue. I attempt to explain the reasons behind the gender wage gap between men and women by briefly looking at the issue historically and explain some theories and studies as it relates to employers preference, education and career choices.
Although todays work has changed vastly for women in America since the late 50s, one thing that still remains the same is the pay gap between men and women over the last decade. Such discrimination against women has caused certain laws to be placed to put a stop to unfair practices. Since the signing of the equal pay act of 1963, it is now illegal to pay men and women substantially different wages for equal work (NWCL, 2013). This poses the question, could there still be pay difference between men and women in todays’ workforce and if so why? Let’s first take a look at wages from an historical time-line. Pay difference between men and women remains a hot topic that keeps re-surfacing over the years and reasons behind the gap are highly debated. Research has proven, after World War II, women were paid 60% of what men were paid. After the Equal Pay act was passed in 1963 things took a positive turn for women and women’s rights. However, although things and opportunities became better for women, there was no equal pay for all. Working women today earn an average of 80 cents for every dollar earned by male counter parts which is better than the latest reports of 77 cents for every dollar in 2011.
Some reasons that may contribute to these statistics are employer views on what salaries “should” be based on bias views that many employers have. One common view is the gender “rule of women” duties and responsibilities resulting from parenthood. It is very common for women to work part time or take a break in their education or careers when there are children to take care of. However this doesn’t apply to “all women” and sadly all women are placed in to this assumption. Those women who do choose to re-join the work force fulltime after taking a break or working only part time are challenged with accepting lesser wages than their male counterparts. Unfortunately for women who don't have families are still considered as “potential mothers” and because of this may be denied promotion opportunities or higher wages. Sometimes we as individuals without thinking, force our views on how one should be paid based on bias opinions. One story that I would like to reflect on would be a conversation between a mother and her 20 -year old daughter. The mother was a school official and she was just expressing her concerns of the teacher applicants. The mother bragging on how great all the candidates were and had narrowed down the candidates to only two. She mentioned that both of the candidates were great but the only difference was the genders. Just as I thought, the daughter asked, “What difference does that make?” The mother then began to express, “if I choose the young female she is sure to leave soon to get married and have children; but the young gentleman would need a bigger salary to take care of his family and a teacher’s salary would not be nearly enough”. The daughter took a step back and couldn’t believe the thoughts that her mother conveyed aloud. The daughter then asked her mom, “I am a young female, what if an employer determined my fate of employment on my gender?” In the story the daughter begins to express her feelings on how unfair this was because she had no intentions on having kids but was being put in the same category of all females in the workforce.
I agree this is bias and unfair. Although the daughter was upset she later realized that the points her mother made were true thoughts and gave general insights of what people really think. These are the things that women in the work place are faced with before even getting the opportunity to showcase their skillsets. It has taken several years for women to be seen as equal to men in the workforce. Although, many people believe men and women are treated fairly, studies show that women and men are paid unfairly for doing the same job.
Another reason that attempts to support the reasons behind the wage gap is education and career choices. Research show that nowadays there are a lot of women graduates from universities and that women are excelling in school then men (Buchmann, 2006). So why are women still not due equal pay as men? On a positive note, we can see the gap getting narrower and narrower over the years. Studies showed that in 2009, women earn 80% of what men earn after one year they graduate from college (Day and Hill, 2007). Even though women's level of education has increased, this advancement is not enough to receiving equal pay. As stated in the diagram below, the US Labor of Statistics compared salary data from 1955-2012, which show the trends in wages by gender. Women's earnings, 1955–2012.
According to statistics education is a factor in income, which shows that higher degrees lead to higher salaries.. In the data below, men earn more than women in each category.
Earnings by degree and sex Degree Median weekly earnings, women Median weekly earnings, men Doctoral $1,371 $1,734 Professional $1,415 $1,836 Master’s $1,125 $1,515 Bachelor’s $930 $1,199 Associate’s $682 $880 High school graduate, no college $554 $720 Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Women’s Earnings and Employment by Industry, 2009,” TED: The Editor’s Desk (February 16, 2011).
Those who discredit the significance of gender pay discrimination often fault this difference in salaries on women’s choice of study. But a recent study shows that the pay gap still persists even when women choose male dominated fields of study or work such as business, engineering, mathematics and medicine. The pay gap is greatest in biology, health and mathematic fields. Women earn more than men in history and social services professions only.
Another study indicates that once female graduates enter into their careers, they are more likely to accept the compensation offered. In addition, research indicates that there is a big difference in the will to negotiate by gender. Studies show that females were less likely than men to engage in negotiations to improve upon the initial compensation offer (Bloomberg Law reports, 2013). “Only 7% of the female students attempted negotiation, compared to 57% of the male students. As noted by Bowles, Babcock and Lai, women’s reluctance to initiate negotiations, as compared to men, may be an “important and underexplored explanation” for the gender pay gap” (Bloomberg Law reports, 2013). This, in turn, leads to lower salaries’ as a result of negotiation.
Many people would like to avoid the wage gender gap by making sure that everyone keeps their salaries private to protect all, but does this rally solve the issues at hand? Through surveying my peers and research I have found that many feel that salaries should be kept private. It seems that if all salaries were kept personal and amongst individuals then there wouldn’t be such a big issue with the wage gap. I personally disagree and dislike the fact that some employers have policies in place that refrain you from discussing salaries amongst other employees. I strongly feel that all should be paid fairly no matter ethnicity or gender.
Conclusion
I presented a brief overview of many reasons of the gender wage gap which is experienced on a grand scale. It is essential to point out that the solution of the gender pay gap cannot be explained or fixed by differences in skills, experience, education, or life choices. However, to sum it all, in general women are not paid as equally as men. The reasons for that cannot be measured accurately like discrimination or motivation levels. However, studies have proven that even though women are not paid as much as men, women college graduates are paid better now in terms of discrimination which is slowly closing the wage gap. For the future we can conclude that even though there are some improvements, the gender gap will be an ongoing occurrence in years ahead. Should there be more laws or bills brought to congress to ensure that the companies that are paying women unfairly are held accountable? Although this would be a fix in the right direction, it is ultimately to each individual to ensure that everyone is treated fairly.
