Gender Wage Gaps

Gender and Income/Wages In 1964, the Civil Rights Act made it illegal for employers to discriminate against individuals on the basis of gender, color, race, and religion. This act was passed for the purpose of providing equality for all groups of society in the work field. However, despite the act's demand for equal pay, gender wage gaps are still noticeable today. In fact, AAUW The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap explains, “If change continues at the slower rate seen since 2001, women will not reach pay equity with men until year 2152”(4).
How Income/Wages Differs Across Gender Groups It appears that despite women’s huge gains in their educational attainment and sustained efforts, advancements concerning gender equality are askew

Legitimate reasons that we can blame for the gender wage gap only covers 55 percent, according to 2003 US Government Accountability Office. This leaves 45 percent of the gender wage gap with an illegitimate reason. At least some of this is due to discrimination, even if it is subtle and subconscious. Gender discrimination in the work industry could be displayed in the hiring process, promotions that are given, and pay practices of the business. Like I mentioned before, most of the discrimination goes to women that have children. Many mothers feel that they were faced with penalties for seeking flexibility needed to make home/work life balance work and were often forced to quit their job. As stated before, employers discriminate against women with children because as expressed in The Inequality Reader: Women with children were often stereotyped as less committed than women without children and were “penalized” by having a recommended starting salary of $11,000, that being 7.4 percent less than what was offered to non mothers

By increasing women’s capability to keep a job they need, be preeminent in the workforce, and once again lower the gender wage gap. The Healthy Families Act would entrench that workers have access to paid sick days and that they would not have to worry if it wasn’t financially possible for them to pay the medical bills if they or their children were to fall ill. “The Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act, would create a federal paid family and medical leave program that would provide up to 12 weeks of partial wage replacement after the birth of a new child, to provide care for a seriously ill family member, or to recover from a worker’s own serious illness, building on the job protection offered by the Family and Medical Leave Act of