A huge problem in the working world is the issue of equal pay between men and women in the workplace. Once stance taken is that women are specifically targeted and that they are payed less than the average income of a man who has the same education and who works in the same profession while the other stance states that men and women are paid as close to equal as possible considering the careers taken. The issue of equal pay for women is considered an embarrassment. The term ¨embarrassment” is not an accurate term to describe the issue when so many factors go into how much women are paid. In 2014, a study showed that women earned 77 percent of what a man in the same position earned the same year. This looks bad, but
The United States has one of the highest gender pay gaps among the developed countries. In the country, the gender pay gap is measured as the ratio of female to males yearly earning among workers in full-time, year round (FTYR) earnings. In 2009, female FTYR earned 77% (0.77) as much as the FTYR male workers (US Census Bureau, 2013). The history of Gender Gap earning reveals USA has made big strides towards reducing the gender pay gap from 1980. For instance, in 1980 the gender pay gap ratio was 0.62 while in 1990, the gap stood at 0.72. Further from 1990 to 2000, the gap reduced to 0.73 and then to 0.77 in 2009. Currently, the gender pay gap stands at 0.76 and continues to persist (US Census Bureau, 2013).
The pay gap between genders is increasingly becoming a hot topic of discussion. Recently I have witnessed conversations, read news articles and heard stories about women being paid unfairly and only making a small percentage of what men earn. Forbes Magazine states that in the last decade, full-time working women on average only make 77 percent of what men earn (Maatz). There is even a day dedicated to recognizing when women’s wages finally match men’s wages from the previous year; this day is called Equal Pay Day (Maatz).
Throughout the world, discrimination in all forms has continued to be a constant struggle; whether it’s racial, gender based, religion, beliefs, appearance or anything that makes one person different from another, it’s an everyday occurrence. A major place that discrimination is occurring at is in the workplace. One of the largest problems discrimination issues is believed to be gender. Women, who have the same amount of experience as men are not getting paid at the same rate as men, these women also are equally trained and educated. According to the article Gender Pay, it was discovered in 2007 that a woman makes 81 cents for every dollar a man earns.(“Gender Pay”) . This shouldn’t be happening in today’s society for the fact the society lived in today is suppose to be more accepting. Men are viewed as being more popular, valuable and having higher powers than women. The Reason Discrimination is involved in the equal pay equal work is because of the significance it has to how some businesses pay their employees.
Women are more than half the work force and are graduating at higher rates then men and continue to earn considerably less then men. There are several contributing factors to the gender wage gap. Women experience gender discrimination in the work force even though it’s been illegal since the Equal Pay Act in 1963. One of the challenges for women is uncovering discrimination. There is a lack of transparency in earnings because employees are either contractually prohibited or it’s strongly discouraged from being discussed. Discrimination also occurs in the restricting of women’s access to jobs with the highest commission payments, or access to lucrative clients.
In the U.S history, women have been treated unfairly for a fairly long time. Even though, people try to attach great importance to women, unfairness still exists. After looking at gender pay gap between men and women, I find both good side and bad side.
The wage gap is a prevalent issue in the United States and must be closed in order to increase the quality of life for women across all fields of expertise. In 2014, female full-time workers made only 79 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 21 percent (“Pay Equity & Discrimination”). As a woman who does the same amount of work for the same amount of time, just as well as as her male counterpart, the existence of a wage gap
After a long hard week at work, it can be nice receiving that wonderful paycheck at the end. But what if you heard that your male co-worker earned more but did the exact same things as you? Would you just ignore it or talk to your boss about it? What if you knew that this unequal pay was fairly normal for most women in the workforce? This gap in the paycheck between men and women is commonly called the gender pay gap or the gender gap. We, as a society, need to find what’s causing this gap and learn how to get rid of it. The gender gap may have changed a lot over the years, but is still very present in the workforce today.
Women have faced gender wage discrimination for decades. The gender pay gap is the difference between what a male and a female earns. It happens when a man and a woman standing next to each other doing the same job for the same number of hours get paid different salaries. On average, full-time working- women earn just “77 cents for every dollar a man earn.” When you compare a woman and a man doing the same job, “the pay gap narrows to 81 percent (81%)” (Rosin). Fifty-one years ago, in order to stop the gender gap discrimination, Congress enacted the Equal Pay Act of 1963. The act states that all women should receive “equal pay for equal work”. Unfortunately, even in 2014 the gender pay gap persists and even at the highest echelons of the corporate; therefore, the equal pay act is a failure.
America is a place that encourages freedom and equal opportunity. Unfortunately women are not always receiving that equality in their paychecks. The problem is in some instances, women still are not being paid equal to men in the workplace. In fact, they are still being paid seventy five cents to the man’s dollar. It is unfathomable to think that the wage gap continues to exist in 2015. Women have undoubtedly become a significant part of the American workforce. However, women’s pay has not kept pace with their male counterparts due to several reasons.
Women had suffered unfair pay in the workforce for years. Statistics have shown that men still earn more than women who have the same degree, education, and qualifications. Women are the main focus for the uneven and unequal share of low-wages in the United States. However, women have additional responsibilities from men that keep them out of the workforce longer which in return leads to discrimination. This research will introduce problems, solutions, and prove that there are alternatives for women.
The gender wage gap is a well-known aspect of our gender inequality in America. In April of 2013 the 50th anniversary of the equal pay act of 1963 was celebrated, this act was the declaration of "unconscionable practice of paying female employees less wages than male employees for the same job" (huffingtonpost) when signed. However we have even yet to see any changes 50 years later. To this day woman are still getting paid approximately 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. Now this may seem like a very small amount, but if added up into an entire years income it can make a significant difference in pay checks between men and woman. The gender wage gap is an important and controversial issue in American and it needs to be solved in order to regain equality between men and woman.
A woman’s right to equality guarantees her that she will be treated fairly in the workplace and that she is respected as having equal value and worth as her male peers. The wage gap has been around since women began working outside the home, and even as more careers become open to women, there are still numerous complaints of harassment and inequality being filed daily. Today, our country’s standard of freedom and values would be followed more fairly if a gender wage gap did not exist between women and men. Typically in the US, women are paid seventy-seven cents to a man’s
In any case if a woman has worked the ample amount of time to further her education just like a man then the pay should not matter, their job performance should make their increase in pay not their gender. “Mankind” was viewed as such, a collection of men: dependent upon women for reproduction but unwilling to value them as equal members of society. While the establishment of internationally recognized women’s rights has accelerated, greatly, over the past century, “gender equality” is an idea that remains very far off from reality. The wage gap between men and women is a major issue facing today’s society. “Women are faced with a pay gap in nearly every occupation. From elementary and middle school teachers to computer programmer, women are paid less than men in female-dominated, gender-balanced, and male-dominated occupations.” These statistics are quite unexpected because the college graduation rate of women compared to that of men is 32% percent
Equal pay for equal work is an outdated and reductive artifact of the feminist movement which fails to acknowledge extraordinary workers, take advantage of physiological and socioemotional differences in the sexes, and promotes an enslaving and socialist ideal that values labor over results. We should, therefore, abandon it. Businesses should award salaries based solely on merit without regard to gender or other factors, even if a gender bias should emerge as a result.