The Gender wage gap, What is it & its Relations to Equal pay for work of equal value

The Gender wage gap, What is it & its Relations to Equal pay for work of equal value

The gender wage gap is a term which is used to refer to the average inequality in the wages and salaries between women and men in the labor force. There are two ways in which there could be a distinction in pay gap, where there are the unadjusted pay gap and adjusted pay gap which has in account the working days, hours, job and education experience(Misra, & Murray-Close, 2014). This paper will look at the maladjustment of wages in salaries based on gender in the workforce. It will explore the historical context of the pay gap, causes of the maladjustment and why the problem has persisted and the legislative issues which have been put in place to bring favorable and equal wages between men and women.

The historical context of gender pay gap can be traced from the 19th century up to the 1960s when there was legislation to have equal pay grades. Until the 1960s, newspapers used to publish separated job listings for women and men. Categories of jobs were according to gender, with the high valued jobs given under "Help wanted—male." Some advertised same jobs under listings female and male—with separated scales of pay. Separate job listings meant per se unequal: in 1950 and 1960, females with jobs which are full time earned averagely a difference of 59–64 cents on one dollar the males were earning in the same occupation (baron, & cobb-Clark, 2009).

It was on June 10, 1963, when there was the adoption of Equal Pay Act on, it made illegal to remunerate women in low scales for the same work based on their sex. Differences in merit, seniority, the quantity and quality of work, or different demonstration may merit difference in wages, but sexuality could not accept as a detriment some one's resume. This legislation which was signed into law by J.F. Kennedy who was then the president of the United States (baron, & cobb-Clark, 2009).

The causes of unequal pay in the United States can be derived from the following perspectives. Direct discrimination

Some men are paid more for working on the same job. This aspect explains only a minor part of the gender pay gap based on the effectiveness of the national legislation and European Union (Liu, 2016).

Undervaluing of women's work

More often females earn less than males on doing work of equal value. The key reason is the way the competence of women is regarded in comparison to men’s work. Jobs which require similar qualifications, skills, or experience appear to be undervalued and paid poorly in situations where they are dominated by women. An example, the cashiers (mainly female) in a supermarket get less than the employees (mainly male) whose work is to stack shelves and do other physical jobs (Liu, 2016).

The labor market segregation.

Men and women appear to labor in different jobs. While women tend to dominate in different sectors, women are the ones who predominate the lower paid and undervalued occupations. There is under-represented of women in senior positions and managerial positions. For example, 17% represents women who are board members of the EU listed companies; chair boards are around 4% o, and a third engineer and scientists in Europe(Liu, 2016).

Traditions and stereotypes

There is a link between stereotypes and segregation in jobs. Some of the cases represent the ways in which stereotypes and traditions influence pay scales of women. This can include professional careers, choices of educational paths which women and girls make. New university graduates in universities represent 60%, but however, they are the minority areas such as computing, engineering, and mathematics (Liu, 2016).

Balancing private life and work.

There are greater difficulties experienced by women than male in juggling private life and work. It is worth noting that sharing of care of the family, domestic responsibilities is not equal to men and women. Most women than men have parental leave which translates those women are usually the ones to leave the labor market. Statistics show that women rate with young children are 65.8% in the EU the ones having jobs as to men who are 89.1% men (Liu, 2016).

None the less, the are several court rulings in the United States which have attempted to harmonize remunerations in the aspect of gender. These include Schultz v. Wheaton Glass Co. (1970), U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit where the ruling was that jobs needed not to be necessarily identical but to be substantially equal. In this regard, job titles cannot be changed by the employer in an attempt to pay one gender, less (Misra, & Murray-Close, 2014). The other is the Corning Glass Works v. Brennan (1974); U.S. Supreme Court which was a ruling decrying that employers cannot pay women less because is the trend in the market rate (Misra, & Murray-Close, 2014).

Gender pay gap is an issue that cannot be tolerated in the wake of the 21st century. To shrink or rather narrow the gender pay gap, several issues must be addressed, and one of them includes the raising of minimum wages. The current rate of minimum wages in the United States should be raised to estimated $10.10 in an hour to boost the minimum wages and shrink the pay gap. The other way is having especially women of color to have fair scheduling practices. This is because there is a high probability of them working in low-wage jobs (Misra, & Murray-Close, 2014). Therefore, there should be legislations to allow flexibility and scheduling of working hours and days in occupations which are rigid and unpredictable.

The other notable aspect is for the federal government and the Congress, to pass a national insurance program for medical and sick leave. The rationale her is that it is mostly women who are befallen with the task of caring the young one ad taking care of the sick in the family. Statistics show that women earn less in their jobs than their male counterparts because they work fewer hours in the labor force (Liu, 2016). Having access to a paid leave will mean that the women will return to the same employer after the leave and this would translate to still having the same higher pay which can be of help in closing the wage gap between women and men.

In conclusion, is evident that despite the legislations and court rulings in the United States of America, there is still gender wage gap in the labor force. The causes of the wage gap must be dealt with, and it’s not a responsibility of the federal government alone, but the responsibility of all employers and employees combined. Solutions to shrinking the gender age gap cannot happen instantly, but a step in the right direction will see the gap narrowed up to favorable levels in the meantime.

References

Baron, j., & cobb-Clark, d. (2009). Occupational Segregation and the Gender Wage Gap in Private- and Public-Sector Employment: A Distributional Analysis*. Economic Record, 86(273), 227-246. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4932.2009.00600.x

Liu, K. (2016). Explaining the gender wage gap: Estimates from a dynamic model of job changes and hours changes. Quantitative Economics, 7(2), 411-447. http://dx.doi.org/10.3982/qe295

Misra, J., & Murray-Close, M. (2014). The Gender Wage Gap in the United States and Cross-Nationally. Sociology Compass, 8(11), 1281-1295. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12213