Historically, gender inequality has always been a phenomenon embedded in our cultural infrastructure and today it still exists in our society in the subtle form of Pay Gap, a social issue that exposes income discrepancy between men and women. There are multiple causes to this difference of wage and the measure of pay gap fluctuates greatly based on demographics and economic status. Pay gap affects us in various ways in terms of job selectivity, economic functionality, and gender role assignment. All of those could be found in our everyday lives and ultimately pay gap serves as a symbol of inequality in our seemingly fair contemporary society.
Studies show that men tend to choose careers because they grant them a higher salary …show more content…
in the long run. Whereas women often make the same career choices but tend to approach it differently. There is a wide belief that female surgeons earn less than male doctors but this is actually based on married males that have kids and married women that have kids. Studies show that in the US, never married female surgeons earn approximately 17 percent more than never married male doctors. This happens even when they have the exact same education and the same hours worked.
Even though it is true that women earn 24 percent less than male workers. This is a result in the choices made along the line, not primarily because of a bias towards the male gender. If employers could get women for 75 cents, to do the same work that a man does for a dollar everyone would end up doing it. Another example of women out earning men is female engineers earn an average of 141 percent of what men make in the same field. This is mainly because women are greatly superior at communicating.
In 2014, data shows that full time female workers only made 79 cents for every dollar that a full time male worker made. On average, women generally earn less than men in almost every single occupation with significant data to track earnings ratios. Women’s access to higher education has changed the gender pay gap somewhat, the Center for American progress claim that women would need a doctoral degree in order to earn the same as men with a bachelor’s degree.
On an economic stand point, the gender pay discrimination is not healthy because it would mean companies are better off to have more women in their staff. In 2011, surveys by Catalyst showed that companies that had 19 to 44 percent of women earned 26 percent more in capital than those of firms with no women at all. Although the fault to this is that it is harder to hire women into a position with high responsibilities because they know that they will be getting paid less than the males working in the same role.
The gender pay gap makes earning money for women and their families difficult.
Closing the gender pay gap would greatly improve the economic situation for women and it would increase the security of their economy. In 2013, women were more likely to live in poverty which, leads to housing assistance and public health benefits such as food stamps.
Men generally go into higher paying industrial jobs such as mining, construction, or manufacturing that are represented by the union. Whereas, women like to work in the service industry. These factors explain 53% of the pay gap. Women are less likely to go into jobs that have to do with science or math, not because they don’t have the skill set or aren’t smart enough for it but, because they have more career opportunities than men.
Companies can help close the pay gap by making a commitment to their workers that they will be paid fairly. They can also address the gender pay differences on regular bases. Women can help themselves by negotiating for equal pay, benefits, and promotions. As well as the Paycheck Fairness Act that hasn’t been updated since 1963 could be changed in order to benefit everyone instead of punishing workers when they try to fight for their wages or even discuss about
them.
Data shows that men will almost make more money in their first year than women even when their school, grades, majors, jobs and hours worked are taken into account. Women also get starting salaries that are almost 15,000 dollars less than men. The job choices of women do affect the gender pay gap but, one of the factors is that women are more likely to take a break in their careers to take care of children. We also have to take in account that women are generally looking to start a family in the future, which means they are most likely going to take a maternity leave. This means women have a greater chance of leaving the company for a year whereas men don’t have to worry about this. This could also be a reason that men are hired into higher more responsible roles in a company.
The gender pay gap plays an enormous factor in gender discrimination and in the lives of women and their families. Women are being paid 73 cents to the dollar that men are making. We are economically hurting because of the pay gap; companies are more likely to hire females over men because they know they’re going to be paid less. Women tend to choose more creative careers or careers where they can help or serve people. In conclusion, the pay gap plays a factor in the jobs we choose, in world economy, and in gender role assignment.