Womens Wage Gap

The gender pay gap is the gap between what men and women are paid. It refers to the median yearly pay of all women who work full time and year-round, compared to the pay of a similar cohort of men who work full time and year-round. Other measurements of the gender pay gap are based on weekly or hourly earnings or are specific to a particular group of women (Deborah J. Vagins 1. The gender wage gap is a complex problem that has continued despite the Equal Pay Act of 1963 that swore equal pay for equal work.

Women are practically fifty percent of the workforce. They are the sole or co-provider in half of American families with kids. They get more undergrad and graduate degrees than men.

However, all things considered, women keep on procuring impressively not as much as men (Chandra Childers, Ph.D., Heidi Hartmann, Ph.D., Ariane Hegewisch, M.Phil., Jessica Milli, Ph.D. 3). According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2010, women on average earned 81 cents for every dollar men earned, creating concern among scholars, policy makers, and the press. Today, the estimated 18-cent gender pay gap among all workers in 2017 has narrowed from 36 cents in 1980 according the Pew Research Center. While the wage gap has narrowed substantially in the nearly 50 years since the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, many still think that the gap has not narrowed quick enough or far enough.

So why is there an age gap in the first place? Until the mid-1960s, papers distributed separate job postings for men and women. Jobs were ordered by sex, with the higher-level jobs listed exclusively under “Help Wanted—Male.” In some cases, the ads ran similar jobs under male and female listings, but with separate pay scales. Separate, meant unequal. Between 1950 and 1960, women with full time jobs earned on average between 59 to 64 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earned in the same job (Beth Rowen 2).

Among men and women employed full time, 60 percent of the compensation hole can be credited to, for example, work experience at 10 percent, union status at 4 percent, and the aforementioned choice of occupation at 27 percent, among other measurable differences. A woman’s work experience is abridged in the event that she needs to take maternity leave or get a vacation from a job to take care of the child, which she is more bound to do than her male partner seeing as though they can’t breastfeed or care for the child the way a mother would. Another quarter of the compensation hole is attributable to the distinctions in wages paid by businesses that employ generally men or mostly women. These incorporate blue collar businesses, for example, mining, manufacturing, and construction, which for the most part employ men, and the administration area or administrative occupations, which more so pay less and employ more women (Jane Farrell and Sarah Jane Glynn 2) .

In the United States, according to an estimate published by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, todays wage gap will not close at this rate until 2058, which is another generation away for the women of today. It is true that, when factors such as career choice and parental or marital status are used as control variables in statistical models aiming to explain what causes the wage gap, the size of that gap is reduced, and what is left unexplained is generally thought to possibly be the result of discrimination. But it is just as likely that discrimination affects these ‘control’ variables as well as the size of the remaining gap. Many might argue that the gender wage gap is a ‘Myth’. That there really is no Gender Wage Gap. There are wage gap skeptics that accentuate that women ‘chose’ different and lower-paying school majors than men, suggesting such contrasts imply that the pay gap measure is certifiably not a decent measure of economy-wide pay inequality. ‘Choice’ is, obviously, an unverified presumption. There is impressive proof of obstructions to free selection of occupations, running from absence of unprejudiced data about employment prospects to genuine harassment and segregation in male dominant occupations.

Writer, Aaron Bandler has an article about Christina Sommers video on her idea that there is no wage gap. Bandler argues that the common talking point is that women only receive 77 cents for every dollar a man receives, and sexism is what’s causing women to earn less than men. But this statistic is incredibly misleading because it doesn’t take into account occupation, position, education, or hours worked per week (AARON BANDLER 1). Moreover, in PragerU’s latest video, Christina Sommers makes a point that If, for the same work, women make only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes, why don’t businesses hire only women? Wages are the biggest expense for most businesses. So, hiring only women would reduce costs by nearly a quarter – and that would go right to the bottom line. Don’t businesses want to be profitable? Or, are they just really bad at math? (Christina Sommers 2 )

Well, actually, it’s the feminists, celebrities and politicians spreading this wage gap myth who have the math problem, she states. She defines her argument by using a simple equation. 77-pennies on-the-dollar statistic is determined by separating the median profit of all women working full time by the median income of all men working full time. At the end of the day, if the normal salary of all men is, say, $40,000 dollars per year, and the normal yearly pay of all-women is, say, $30,800 dollars, that would imply that women acquire 77 cents for each dollar a man wins. $30,800 divided by $40,000 is equal to $0.77. These calculations don’t uncover a gender wage unfairness since it doesn’t consider occupation, position, education or hours worked every week. Indeed, even an investigation by the American Association of University Women, a women’s activist association, demonstrates that the genuine pay gap lessens to just 6.6 cents when you factor in various decisions men and women make. What’s more, the key word here is “decision.” The little compensation hole that exists has nothing to do with paying women less, let alone with sexism; it has to do with contrasts in individual career decisions that men and women make. Simply put, the people who oppose the idea of the gender wage gap believe there is no solution to this social issue. It’s a choice that woman must make. While Sommers did make a very good case for her arguments there are some key points that she didn’t touch on. She remained silent of the race issue when it comes the gender wage gap. This is a thing that many may not want to touch on because of the sensitivity of the topic.

While sexism could be a cause for the gender wage gap we must also take into account racism which still indeed, lives on today in the 20th century. When contrasting all men and women who work all day, all year in the United States, women are paid just about 80 cents for each dollar paid to their male partners. Be that as it may, the pay hole is considerably bigger when taking a look at Black women who work all day, all year.

According to nwlc.org they are paid just 63 pennies for each dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men. This hole, which adds up to lost $21,001 every year, implies that Black women need to work over 19 months until the very day of July to make as much as white, non-Hispanic men did in the past twelve-month calendar year. Age gaps are even wider when putting them in categories of age and state. Black women’s wage gap is wider among older women. Among young people ages 15–24, working full time, Black women generally make 81 cents for every dollar white, non-Hispanic man make. But the wage gap widens as Black women age. Among people working full time, year-round in their prime working years, ages 25–44 black women are paid just 65 cents. Black women’s wage gap is substantially wider in certain states. While Black women broadly are paid only 63 pennies for each dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men, they can face much more extreme pay holes depending where they live.

In Louisiana, the most noticeably bad state for Black women’s compensation fairness, Black women commonly are paid slightly less than half of what white, non-Hispanic men are paid. Not to mention the gap amongst native woman. According to nwlc.org, native women working full time, year-round are typically paid only 57 cents for every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts. If not the same, their income is even lower than black women’s when compared to men. It widens as they grow older and depending on their level of education. If these experts were to push the conversation further, involving race they would probably find that their hypothesis is invalid and contradictory. There is in fact a wage, especially amongst black and native women. While some experts disagree with the gender wage gap others believe that looking beyond the fact that most women will bear a child at least once in their life sexism is a thing in the wage gap amongst woman and men.

Ultimately, I can’t say I side with either. There are points that I understand and agree with on both the opposing and the allied side. I agree that there Is no way to solve this social issue when pertaining to solely woman and men because it’s the way of the universe. Woman are the human beings that bear children not men. The only way a single person could solve this issue is to live their life without any children while some may be fine with the idea, generally most woman want to have kids. On the other hand, I do think its unfair that woman get payed less because they have children, woman can get the same education as men if not better, the same wok experience but when it comes down to that one thing woman are getting payed less. I also disagree with the racism portion of the gender wage gap. We are in the 20th century and should be way past the racism stage.

Sad to say it still lives on today. When we take a look at the control variables of the gender wage gap, the findings do not say that the wage gap is actually a smaller problem than we thought. The findings show that women need more information and opportunity to pursue certain rewarding careers, like those in STEM careers, where the largest employers are only now providing their employees paid family leaves that can encourage the more equivalent division between women and men. Redressing the United States lag in providing paid family leave and subsidized child care can help, but so can improved information about pay and stronger enforcement of our equal opportunity laws. As argued previously in this essay, there is definitely some sort of a gender wage gap. This gap exists because of choices. Choices a woman must make when it comes to how she wants to live her life. It isn’t necessarily sexism, depending on the career path they chose it could simply be because it’s a more male prominent occupation. I do believe that the racism aspect of this gender wage gap is getting ignored though. African American and Native woman are getting payed even less all because of the color of their skin. There is an underlying solution, maybe starting payed leave would close this gap. It might raise other issues though.

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