Introduction:
In the English language, total synonymy is extremely rare, as two words would have to be completely interchangeable in any context to qualify. This criterion has consequently led to it being “commonly asserted that absolute, perfect, or full synonyms do not exist” (Divjak 2010:3). However, there are clearly examples where terms significantly overlap in semantic space, and this expansive set of near-synonyms includes the nouns ‘wage’ and ‘salary’. This study explored whether the two words are used differently in texts, despite having extremely similar dictionary definitions. According to ‘Cambridge Dictionaries Online’, both ‘wage’ and ‘salary’ involve a “fixed amount of money” paid to an employee for their services, and they are cited as synonyms on the website ‘Thesaurus.com’. However, the two are not completely substitutable in discourse, and my investigation will show that the usage of each item is dependent on external factors, such as the type of job and the length of time being discussed.
Methodology:
I analysed ‘wage’ and ‘salary’ using three categories: their respective histories, patterns of use, and specific use in a text. For the first section, I used various sources, including websites ‘Etymonline.com’ and ‘Oxford English Dictionary Online’. I then explored individual aspects of the etymologies given, using other resources in a narrower search.
Secondly, I used the corpus query system ‘Sketch Engine’ and its corpus ‘enTenTen12’ to analyse patterns of use. ‘EnTenTen12’s vast quantity of words (11,191,860,036) improved my investigation’s validity. I used Sinclair’s proposed method (1999) of analysing concordance lines (“list[s] of occurrences… of a word or phrase in a corpus” – Gavioli 2005:11) thirty at a...
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The article The Gender Gap in Wages insights the issue about the wage gap in the early 21st century, observing that is not actual discrimination in the workplace, but rather the type of work and time put into it that changes the wages between male and female workers. June O’Neill gives sufficient statistical data that is focused on work experience and how productivity in the home is a result of the wage gap. Her claim introduces a great amount of statistical data that shows the reader the reasons for a wage gap to exist. She is knowledgeable about the subject and is straight-forward about her point. O’ Neill’s argument is justifiable meanwhile, it can be argued that her neutrality on the wage gap does not give a specific reason as to how this
The remaining explanations of gender-based wage differences fall under the umbrella category of discrimination. Employer preference discusses the ways in which employers differentiate between potential employees based on noneconomic factors such as physical appearance. Statistical discrimination uses the ways in which employers stereotype groups of people and therefore avoid hiring certain people because of their association with a typical group. This plays into the gender-based wage gap because employers tend to view women as the group they are a part of – the female popula...
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Jack and Jill only get paid differently because they were interested in different jobs and lifestyles. Do you think all jobs should have the same salary? Do you think we should ban salary negotiation to level the playing field? Do you think we should force women into subjects into subjects they aren't interested in to increase gender balance in classes? Do you believe in equality of outcome or equality of opportunity? The real question in each of these, at their core, is whether the ends justify the means. The answer, as far as these arguments are concerned, is a resounding
In order to explain the gender pay gap it first must be defined. Wade and Ferree is the difference between the incomes of the average men and women who work full time (285). This gap can be explained with three concepts gender job segregation and the androcentric pay scale. Since jobs are social constructs the gender segregation of jobs are not an anomaly. The job segregation can explain some of the gender wage gap because the certain jobs that have higher wages were predominately male dominated until recently. In addition to job segregation, the androcentric pay scale, a strong correlation between wages and the gender composition of the job, can aid in the explanation of the gender pay gap because the highest paying jobs are male dominated
A recently published article in the Independent sought to uncover the mystery behind how women in the United Kingdom are underpaid with figures revealing an annual gap of one hundred and forty thousand billion Euros between what they earn compared to what their male counterparts earn (Bulman, 2018). The article authored by Mary Bulman, who is a social affairs correspondent working with the newspaper, revealed how female employees earn far much less than what other male employees with equal or in some instances, less qualifications earn.
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