Pay Gap Between Men And Women Research Paper
AP Language and Composition
20 November 2013
The Wage Gap Between Men & Women
The wage gap between males and females in the United States is an example of discrimination and sexism, and it should be changed so that both genders can come home with an equal salary every year that is directly proportional to their labor. Even though it is true that high-paying jobs aren’t always available, even in the lower class, the pay for each gender isn’t equal. The wage gap, initially, should be eradicated in all of the economic classes.
Education is, and always has been, a defining factor in social status. Whether or not someone received a high school diploma or graduated college determines how high-paying their future job is going to be, or even …show more content…
whether someone will be able to support a family or not. This relates to different genders as well, even though it differentiates between the two sexes. It’s just common knowledge that in today’s time, women outnumber men in American colleges (in attendance) (Francis). Quite a few news outlets have also reported that women in their 20s, right out of college, are earning more of a salary than their male equivalents in large cities (Trunk). Women have shown in several instances that their wisdom has proven to be helpful, and that they are in most cases, more educated than men, but in the real world, their wisdom is not put to their full potential. An example of this is that the most educated league of women continue to grow only in the fields of teaching and nursing, while men with similar education become business executives, scientists, doctors, or lawyers, jobs that obviously pay a noticeable amount more (Fitzpatrick). In the United States, for every female graduating from a four-year college, there were 1.6 males that also graduated in 1960. In 2003, however, those numbers flipped: for there were 1.35 females for every male that graduated (Francis). Women have dramatically improved in their educational status over the past fifty years; so why is there still a wage gap between men and women to this day?
The answer to this is not so simple, for the salaries of men and women have been a debatable topic for many decades.
On April 9, 1963, while signing the Equal Pay Act of 1963, President John F. Kennedy stated that the document would be the end of “unconscionable practice of paying female employees less wages than male employees for the same job” (Glynn). Afterwards, in 1996, the National Committee on Pay Equality marked April 20th as “Equal Pay Day” (Fitzpatrick). But the Act was proved wrong when in September of this year, the National Census Bureau released that from the years 2002 to 2012, the wage gap between genders hasn’t budged from 23 cents (which means that for every dollar that a man comes home with, a woman will come home with $0.77) (Wallace). This wage gap has been debated by experts that it’s an individual’s choice to pick low-budget jobs, and that women and other lower-class citizens can make an easy decision to suddenly be qualified to work for a high-budget one (Wallace). Gender equality hasn’t necessarily been a major topic lately in the national media, but it has almost always been an issue in today’s society; even after a century after it became illegal to pay women less than men based on their gender …show more content…
criteria.
Women have recently had a tendency to receive part-time jobs, some on a self-employed basis and in informal activities. While only one in every four women work on this basis, a smaller amount of men (one in every ten) do the same (Latin). This is just one example of the unknown work quality of women that is shown every day across America. The topic of part-time jobs leads to another national study that involves not only the successful, middle-aged group of women, but also the younger females of this generation that has it rougher. The “mommy penalty government report” is a survey that explain that mothers who have children under the age of 18 earn a considerable less salary than men who have children that are also minors (Savoy). This report also gives the indication that women with kids also have to spend most of their earnings out of their pocket for their children’s needs. There is also another contender against women’s pay rights; and that’s the different races in America. In 2012, both Asian men and women working in the United States have earned more than their white, African-American, Hispanic or Latino counterparts (Savoy). It may seem stereotypical, but different races in this country are still divided economically in every social class, creating a wage gap that is very hard to fill. Americans may be getting high-paying jobs in all races, but the difference in salaries is still evident. Just with looking at salaries of women, if a white female earns $710, it is only ninety-two percent of what an Asian female will make, $770; while African-American women are at $599, Hispanics at $521, which is seventy-eight and sixty-eight percent of that of an Asian woman’s given salary (Savoy).
Even though women have a reputation in the business world as a weak one, it definitely doesn’t mean that it should be made obvious. Raising children, even though being both parents’ responsibility, usually falls on the wife’s responsibility, which will eventually deter a woman’s job experience. Women usually enter the labor market later in their lives, on account of raising children, and participate in it at an unsteady amount (Latin). It’s a harsh fact, but the wage gap increases for a woman with age. Although, when a job is kept regardless of how young or what race they are, women are doing much better than men in job loss (Trunk). It may be the responsibilities a woman faces, or their determined nature, but all women seem to do well over long periods of time and consistency. Maybe this is why men are first to be fired, in most circumstances, while women keep their jobs in a more frequent manner. Although some say women are the last to be fired to avoid alleged discrimination lawsuits, this does not prove that a woman’s hard work does not pay off any less than a man’s does during any given day.
The U.S. Department of Labor has been stating for the past few years that a new tool will be developed to somehow view data involving salaries that would help end pay discrimination (Wallace). This has not shown an appearance yet, at least not that the public has seen indefinitely. There would be a giant change in the pay rate of women (in a positive way) if such a tool were to be initiated in job opportunities all across the country. The difference between the salaries of men and women not only effect individuals’ lives, but also families, especially of those with children (Glynn). If executives of big corporations were to realize the abundance of women in the work force as of today, and how much of a difference it would make in supporting families in the lower-class, the economy today would be in better shape, and the work force would be booming.
Also, the fact that there are only few jobs that women succeed in more than their male counterparts in America unsurprisingly makes the wage gap an even bigger issue. In 2011, some of these jobs included stock clerks and order fillers, bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks, and in which the salary was only a little bit larger than a man in the same line of work (America’s). Even in the White House, women are paid fifteen percent (or higher) less than a man’s salary, which just comes to show how even some of the most important jobs in America rely on mainly a man’s labor (America’s). Men and women are meant to both be in the work force, and if they are in the same, then are also to be paid equally based on their labor.
In the past few centuries of the United States, equality has been a big issue, whether it had been of the freeing of the slaves, giving women the right to vote, or even one of the most recent involving immigrants and how they should be treated as Americans when living here.
But the gender pay equality issue hasn’t been publicized very much at all, even though it shows that we still aren’t giving everyone in our country an opportunity to live with the same freedoms, to be given the same thing for what we worked for (essentially). Paying women the same amount as men in the United States effects everyone, it establishes the foundation for a family, and it could create the opportunity of something better for the female gender group in the future. The wage gap is something that of a sexist act against women, for it decreases the real amount of labor that anyone puts forth. It’s an uneducated act to keep a restriction on someone’s salary just because of their gender; everyone is human and has the right to work for the same amount of
money.
Works Cited
"America 's Gender Wage Gap." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 17 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
Fitzpatrick, Laura. "Why Do Women Still Earn Less Than Men?" TIME.com. N.P., 20 Apr. 2010. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
Francis, David R. "Why Do Women Outnumber Men in College?" The National Bureau of Economic Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
Glynn, Sarah J., and Audrey Powers. "The Top 10 Facts About the Wage Gap." Center for American Progress. N.p., 16 Apr. 2012. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
"Latin American and Caribbean Women: Better Educated, Lower Paid." Inter-American Development Bank. N.p., 15 Oct. 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.
Savoy, Christian. "Mommy Penalty Government Report: New Report Reveals Some Interesting Findings." Examiner.com. N.p., 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Trunk, Penelope. "A Salary Gap Between Men and Women? Oh, Please." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 30 July 2010. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Wallace, Rachel. "New Wage Gap Numbers Aren 't So New." AAUW. N.p., 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.
20 November 2013
The Wage Gap Between Men & Women
The wage gap between males and females in the United States is an example of discrimination and sexism, and it should be changed so that both genders can come home with an equal salary every year that is directly proportional to their labor. Even though it is true that high-paying jobs aren’t always available, even in the lower class, the pay for each gender isn’t equal. The wage gap, initially, should be eradicated in all of the economic classes.
Education is, and always has been, a defining factor in social status. Whether or not someone received a high school diploma or graduated college determines how high-paying their future job is going to be, or even …show more content…
whether someone will be able to support a family or not. This relates to different genders as well, even though it differentiates between the two sexes. It’s just common knowledge that in today’s time, women outnumber men in American colleges (in attendance) (Francis). Quite a few news outlets have also reported that women in their 20s, right out of college, are earning more of a salary than their male equivalents in large cities (Trunk). Women have shown in several instances that their wisdom has proven to be helpful, and that they are in most cases, more educated than men, but in the real world, their wisdom is not put to their full potential. An example of this is that the most educated league of women continue to grow only in the fields of teaching and nursing, while men with similar education become business executives, scientists, doctors, or lawyers, jobs that obviously pay a noticeable amount more (Fitzpatrick). In the United States, for every female graduating from a four-year college, there were 1.6 males that also graduated in 1960. In 2003, however, those numbers flipped: for there were 1.35 females for every male that graduated (Francis). Women have dramatically improved in their educational status over the past fifty years; so why is there still a wage gap between men and women to this day?
The answer to this is not so simple, for the salaries of men and women have been a debatable topic for many decades.
On April 9, 1963, while signing the Equal Pay Act of 1963, President John F. Kennedy stated that the document would be the end of “unconscionable practice of paying female employees less wages than male employees for the same job” (Glynn). Afterwards, in 1996, the National Committee on Pay Equality marked April 20th as “Equal Pay Day” (Fitzpatrick). But the Act was proved wrong when in September of this year, the National Census Bureau released that from the years 2002 to 2012, the wage gap between genders hasn’t budged from 23 cents (which means that for every dollar that a man comes home with, a woman will come home with $0.77) (Wallace). This wage gap has been debated by experts that it’s an individual’s choice to pick low-budget jobs, and that women and other lower-class citizens can make an easy decision to suddenly be qualified to work for a high-budget one (Wallace). Gender equality hasn’t necessarily been a major topic lately in the national media, but it has almost always been an issue in today’s society; even after a century after it became illegal to pay women less than men based on their gender …show more content…
criteria.
Women have recently had a tendency to receive part-time jobs, some on a self-employed basis and in informal activities. While only one in every four women work on this basis, a smaller amount of men (one in every ten) do the same (Latin). This is just one example of the unknown work quality of women that is shown every day across America. The topic of part-time jobs leads to another national study that involves not only the successful, middle-aged group of women, but also the younger females of this generation that has it rougher. The “mommy penalty government report” is a survey that explain that mothers who have children under the age of 18 earn a considerable less salary than men who have children that are also minors (Savoy). This report also gives the indication that women with kids also have to spend most of their earnings out of their pocket for their children’s needs. There is also another contender against women’s pay rights; and that’s the different races in America. In 2012, both Asian men and women working in the United States have earned more than their white, African-American, Hispanic or Latino counterparts (Savoy). It may seem stereotypical, but different races in this country are still divided economically in every social class, creating a wage gap that is very hard to fill. Americans may be getting high-paying jobs in all races, but the difference in salaries is still evident. Just with looking at salaries of women, if a white female earns $710, it is only ninety-two percent of what an Asian female will make, $770; while African-American women are at $599, Hispanics at $521, which is seventy-eight and sixty-eight percent of that of an Asian woman’s given salary (Savoy).
Even though women have a reputation in the business world as a weak one, it definitely doesn’t mean that it should be made obvious. Raising children, even though being both parents’ responsibility, usually falls on the wife’s responsibility, which will eventually deter a woman’s job experience. Women usually enter the labor market later in their lives, on account of raising children, and participate in it at an unsteady amount (Latin). It’s a harsh fact, but the wage gap increases for a woman with age. Although, when a job is kept regardless of how young or what race they are, women are doing much better than men in job loss (Trunk). It may be the responsibilities a woman faces, or their determined nature, but all women seem to do well over long periods of time and consistency. Maybe this is why men are first to be fired, in most circumstances, while women keep their jobs in a more frequent manner. Although some say women are the last to be fired to avoid alleged discrimination lawsuits, this does not prove that a woman’s hard work does not pay off any less than a man’s does during any given day.
The U.S. Department of Labor has been stating for the past few years that a new tool will be developed to somehow view data involving salaries that would help end pay discrimination (Wallace). This has not shown an appearance yet, at least not that the public has seen indefinitely. There would be a giant change in the pay rate of women (in a positive way) if such a tool were to be initiated in job opportunities all across the country. The difference between the salaries of men and women not only effect individuals’ lives, but also families, especially of those with children (Glynn). If executives of big corporations were to realize the abundance of women in the work force as of today, and how much of a difference it would make in supporting families in the lower-class, the economy today would be in better shape, and the work force would be booming.
Also, the fact that there are only few jobs that women succeed in more than their male counterparts in America unsurprisingly makes the wage gap an even bigger issue. In 2011, some of these jobs included stock clerks and order fillers, bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks, and in which the salary was only a little bit larger than a man in the same line of work (America’s). Even in the White House, women are paid fifteen percent (or higher) less than a man’s salary, which just comes to show how even some of the most important jobs in America rely on mainly a man’s labor (America’s). Men and women are meant to both be in the work force, and if they are in the same, then are also to be paid equally based on their labor.
In the past few centuries of the United States, equality has been a big issue, whether it had been of the freeing of the slaves, giving women the right to vote, or even one of the most recent involving immigrants and how they should be treated as Americans when living here.
But the gender pay equality issue hasn’t been publicized very much at all, even though it shows that we still aren’t giving everyone in our country an opportunity to live with the same freedoms, to be given the same thing for what we worked for (essentially). Paying women the same amount as men in the United States effects everyone, it establishes the foundation for a family, and it could create the opportunity of something better for the female gender group in the future. The wage gap is something that of a sexist act against women, for it decreases the real amount of labor that anyone puts forth. It’s an uneducated act to keep a restriction on someone’s salary just because of their gender; everyone is human and has the right to work for the same amount of
money.
Works Cited
"America 's Gender Wage Gap." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 17 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
Fitzpatrick, Laura. "Why Do Women Still Earn Less Than Men?" TIME.com. N.P., 20 Apr. 2010. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.
Francis, David R. "Why Do Women Outnumber Men in College?" The National Bureau of Economic Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
Glynn, Sarah J., and Audrey Powers. "The Top 10 Facts About the Wage Gap." Center for American Progress. N.p., 16 Apr. 2012. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
"Latin American and Caribbean Women: Better Educated, Lower Paid." Inter-American Development Bank. N.p., 15 Oct. 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.
Savoy, Christian. "Mommy Penalty Government Report: New Report Reveals Some Interesting Findings." Examiner.com. N.p., 15 Nov. 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Trunk, Penelope. "A Salary Gap Between Men and Women? Oh, Please." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 30 July 2010. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Wallace, Rachel. "New Wage Gap Numbers Aren 't So New." AAUW. N.p., 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 05 Nov. 2013.