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The Gender Pay Gap

POVERTY&INEQUALITIES
Isitsafetosaythegenderpaygapconsiderablyaffectstheeconomy
andsocietyofacountryaswellashurtswomenandfamilies
considerably?
SingaporeInternationalSchool@Danang
Liu Wen
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Introduction
During the history of mankind, differences and inequality has taken place in every single field of
life. It can be race, gender, culture, religion, or anything else that makes an individual different,
especially between males and females. One considerable issue happening every day in the
workplace and directly affects most the women in most of the world as well. It is safe to say the
pay gap is not only a problem in the United States but almost all over the world as well, and it
can be found among people of all ages, education levels and careers. In an article titled, Equal
Pay For Equal Work: Not Even College Helps Women, Coleman K. emphasizes the apparent
difference below:
The American Association of University Women is releasing a new study that shows
when men and women attend the same kind of college, pick the same major and
accept the same kind of job, on average, the woman will still earn 82 cents to every
dollar that a man earns.
(Coleman, 2012)
The gender pay gap is known as the difference in average full- time income between males and
females. This is a global problem because it happens in countries all over the world and
specifically in the US. There are a number of factors contributing to the difference in the
earnings between men and women, among them are age, education and experience, occupation
and industry, negotiations and promotion. The gender pay gap has stabilized and has had a
tendency to increase in recent years because of varying factors state by state. It is safe to say the
gender pay gap considerably affects the economy and society of a country as well as hurts
women and families considerably.
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Definition and Analysis

The gender pay gap is the difference between mens and womens earnings. The number is
expressed as a percentage of mens income. The gap can be measured in various ways, but the
most common approach is to investigate in weekly when working full- time. The US gender pay
gap is currently at 21 percent, it means that if a man earns $1, a woman just gets 79 cents. When
the Pay Equity Act was passed in 1987, the financial gap was at 36 percent. The gap has
fluctuated between 41 percent and 21 percent for the past four decades from 1979 to 2014 in the
US. It can be implied that the gap has been narrowing slowly over time.
In the US, the gender pay gap appeared very early, around the 1950s. Because there are a number
of women who took jobs in the war industries during World War II while men mainly served in
the army force but they still get less payment than men in the same occupations. Women realised
that they are treated unequally and aware of their income gap from that time, yet it remained.
Until the early 1960s, newspapers published separate job listings for men and women. The jobs
were classified by gender, men conquered most of the high paid jobs. The paper noticed that
between 1950 and 1960, female workers with full time jobs earned about 59 to 64 cents for every
dollar their male counterparts earned in the same career. It was not until the passage of the Equal
Pay Act on June 10, 1963 that it became illegal to pay women less than men and the gender pay
gap was fully considered (Infoplease, 2015).
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(Center for American Progress, 2013)

Economists and gender pay gap theorists suggest that there are a number of factors that make up
the difference in payment between men and women. The graph above shows the information on
elements that contribute to the appearance of the gender pay gap. As can be seen from the graph,
the differences from occupation and industry contributing to gender pay gap was 27.4 percent
and 21.9 percent respectively. In other words, different careers have different wages and the
salary paid for womens jobs is lower than mens. Besides, there are some heavy industries such
as mining, construction, manufacturing which traditionally have employed men rather than
women because they tend to be stronger. This is a disadvantage when women choose careers.
They must consider some positions they do not apply for and often, women can do some servicesector and clerical jobs which pay less than men. This decreases their business scope and it is
likely to continue in the future. As can be seen from the graph, experience and education also
contribute considerably to the gender wage gap. There are three main work areas that can be
high-paid, those are information services, mining and logging, and utilities, but it seems that
these jobs are heavily male-dominated. On the other hand, women have shown up fifty percent
more in the three industries with the lowest average wages: leisure and hospitality, retail trade,
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and other services. Differences in work areas remains one of the most important reasons why
womens earnings are far less than mens.
According to the Council Of Economic Advisers Issue Brief, there are also the unexplained
reasons that accounts for the 41.1 percent. This stresses that the gender pay gap cannot be
explained by only differences in skills, experience, education or location in the labour market,
but also a number of factors such as the gap due to differences in negotiations, promotions and
discrimination (Council Of Economic Advisers Issue Brief, 2015). Because of these different
elements, in the United States the pay gap is therefore also very persistent and has only declined
slightly (ILO, 2009). With so many variables, tackling this problem needs more than one
solution.
Global Perspective:
The gender financial gap is different among countries all over the world. The gender pay gap
fluctuates from 5.62 percent in New Zealand to 36.6 percent in Korea (OECD, 2014). At the
moment, there is no place on earth where women earn as much as men when they have the
similar occupation. It is a good new that women now earn as much as men did 10 years ago
(World Economic Forum, 2015). Therefore, women can struggle to make ends meet in life
because of this inevitable gap.
The gender pay gap has caused some negative effects on women. Women's diminished economic
power has serious effects not only on economics but also on families, childrens education and
gender roles. The gender pay gap hurts single mothers since they must raise their children by
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themselves, depend on their own income. If the earnings are not high enough, they will get stuck
in managing their living costs. They cannot willingly bring the best services to their children,
because nowadays the living standard is higher and higher but their salaries are stable.
The gap also affects pregnant women. They must leave their jobs because of maternity so they
lose the income during that period. But during that time, they have a lot of things to spend money
on because they have to raise a baby. If the companies do not pay for their maternal leave, they
do not have enough money to cover their life. This can affect both their physical and mental
health. Clearly, when women do not have earnings during pregnancy, they can have a hard time
affording their meals and medical care which is necessary after giving birth. Shortage in income
also makes women worry a lot.
The gender pay wage gap is not only damaging to individuals, but evidence has also shown that
the wage gaps can affect families. In District of Columbia, women financially support their
families and more than a third of mothers in working families in every state except for Wyoming
and Utah are the familys primary breadwinners. Therefore, their earnings are necessary to keep
the families finance stable (Center for American Progress, 2010). If women face the gender pay
gap, they will lose billions of dollars every year around the globe. Families whose women are
breadwinners will suffer from poor health care services as well as education, entertainment and
other different services because their salaries are limited. It hurts not only women but children
since they can not enjoy life fully.
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In terms of economic consequences, inequality in payment between males and females can
contribute to the low growth of the economy. Researchers estimated that a decrease in the gender
financial ratio from 17 percent to 16 percent would increase GDP per capita by nearly $260 per
capita (World Bank, 2014). By eliminating the entire gender pay gap from 17 percent to zero to
could be worth around $93 billion or 8.5 percent of the GDP. An October 2012 study by the
American Association of University Women found that during the period of 47 years, an
American woman with a college degree will make about $1.2 million less than a median man
with the same qualification over a lifetime. It means that, closing the pay gap in the US would
raise the U.Ss economy by at least three percent to four percent.
In contrast, the $800 billion economic stimulus bill that was passed by Congress in 2009 is
estimated to have grown the GDP by less than 1.5% comparatively. Therefore, increasing
womens share of occupation from its current ratio of 76 percent to 84 percent, as it is in Sweden,
the US could add 5.1 million women to the workforce, grow the economy by one percent
(Fortune, 2015). This brings some difficulty to developing countries, since mens earnings must
be spent on their family and there is very little for saving. If womens salaries increase, it can
help in increasing the standard of living for employed women and their families, and it would
promote women to enter the labor force.
Pension income really matters because life expectancy is getting longer and longer so that not
only men but women also need adequate expenses to afford their nursing care. The ageing
populations and longer life expectancies have led to a global retirement savings shortfall that
may be as large as $100. Women are less likely than men to get a pension and the benefits they
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receive are lower in most countries. Richard Marin, a professor of finance at Cornell University
noticed that the gap might redefine the global macroeconomics (Zurich, 2015). In the modern
society, if women do not have enough financial support, they will have disadvantages in getting
good healthcare services and other separate services. In case women are single adults or parents
without children, this can make the case worse to manage because when they get older, they can
not afford their lives by themselves. They must need medical care such as hiring a nurse to take
care of them or spending money on hospital for sickness. Thus, if they do not have support from
their children, it is more difficult for them to manage on their own.
Through the years, American women have made significant effort in raising their labor market
experience and their skills. Today, women occupy 47 percent of the labor force and they hold
49.3 percent of jobs. This number has been rising for more than 50 years and is continuing to
increase. However, despite womens endeavors, the gap is still large. The gender pay gap in the
USA in 2014 was 21 percent (AAUW, 2014) and ranked 65th in the world is gender pay gap. In
comparison, this number is much smaller than in South Korea, which is 37.5 percent or Russia,
which is at 32.1 percent. These countries are also higher than Brazil and France, which are 15
and 14.3 respectively (the OECDs latest data, 2016). The ILO considers that the gender pay gap
is a globally persistent problem:
Throughout most regions and many occupations, women are paid less money than
men for the same job. In a majority of countries, women's wages represent between
70 and 90 per cent of men's wages, with even lower ratios in some Asian and Latin
American countries.
(ILO, 2009)
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The gender pay gap is different among countries and regions in the world because of a number of
factors. Among OECD nations women in Australia, Belgium, Italy and Sweden earn 80% as
much as males, whereas in Austria, Canada and Japan women earn about 60%. The difference in
the gap can be explained by the differences in the characteristics among these countries such as
the type work, education, the size of the firm a person is employed by and occupation
segregation. In Western countries like France, Slovak Republic or Brazil, the gender financial
ratio is more positive (14.3, 14.8 and 15 percent respectively) but in some Eastern countries like
South Korea, Japan and Russia, the figures are much more negative (37.2, 27.4 and 24.8
respectively). Every country has its own features about culture and that causes the variety in the
gender pay gap.
According to the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report in 2016, it is good to know that
women have made tremendous progress in their earnings. As can be seen from the graph below,
in 2006 women just carried $6,000 per year. But in 2015, the figures came up to $11, 000.
Moreover, women have a higher status in the areas of employment and income. The median
annual earnings for full- time of woman in America in a year improved from $39,108 (2002) to
$39,157 (2013). The gender earnings ratio therefore narrowed by 1.7 percent, from 76.6 to 78.3
percent. The share of women who work in managerial and professional increased between 33.2
and 39.9 percent (Status of Women in the States, 2015), Nevertheless, globally the gender pay
gap is still substantial. It is estimated that the gender pay gap will take 81 years to erase,
according to the World Economic Forum. The gender pay gap is a global case and it is different
from country to country.
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National Perspective:
In America, it is generally accepted that women face a pay gap and is proven in the statistics that
women can earn just 78 percent of what men do (International Womens Law Center, 2015).
However, in America, the national gender pay gap strongly different among states. According to
data from the American Community Survey, in 2014 the pay gap was the smallest in Washington,
D.C., where women were paid 90 percent of what men were paid, and the largest was in
Louisiana, where women were paid 65 percent of what men were paid (AAUW, 2015). The table
below illustrates specifically how the gender pay gap differs among states in the US.
(Status of women in the states, 2015)
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In
the US, the gender pay gap varies from states to states. So far, the District of Columbia has
ranked a very high score on the Employment and Earnings Composite Index. It includes
womens earnings ($ 60,000) and is ranked first for earnings ratio between men and women
employed full- time, year- round (87 percent) and percentage of employed female workers in
managerial or professional jobs (61.9 percent). Along with the District of Columbia, there are
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some regions such as Connecticut, Maryland, New York and Vermont who also get positive
figures on gender pay gaps with 87.4, 87.4, 87.6 and 86.4 percent respectively. However, some
states saw a poor status of the gender financial ratio such as West Virginia (67.3 percent) and
Louisiana (66.7). For West Virginia, it ranked on the bottom ten on three of the four indicators
and the lowest for the percent of women in the labor force and second to last for the gender pay
gap. Overall, the gender gap is considerably different among states of the US.
What is more, the earnings of women also depend on the color of their skin and race. In
comparison with income of white male workers, Asian American womens salaries show the
smallest gender pay gap, at 90 percent. The gap was largest for Hispanic and Latina women, who
were paid just 54 percent of what white men were paid in 2004 (AAUW, 2015). These days,
although the problem of race discrimination has improved a lot, it also makes it difficult for
women to work. For instance, black women account for 6 percent of the women in the total
workforce but also make up 11 percent of workers in the low- wage economy. At that time,
Latina women represent 15 percent of low- wage employees, more than double their 7 percent
share of the workforce.
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The table below describes the separate women earnings ratio by race and ethnicity in 2014. As
seen from the table, among full-time workers in 2013, Hispanic, American Indian, African
American, and Native Hawaiian women had lower incomes compared with non-Hispanic white
and Asian American women. From the table, women still earn a lot in comparison with men in
the same race, from 78 percent to 90 percent. This means black women have experienced the
unequal treatment in the workplace not only because of their sex but also their race.
(AAUW, 2015)
President Barack Obama also indicated that women should be fairly paid on the seventh
anniversary of his signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Women are not getting the
reasonable shot that we believe every women deserves (Obama, 2009). To make it clear,
working single mothers with children make great efforts to earn their living. Over a quarter of the
population, or more than 2.0 million, suffer from living in low conditions. It is estimated that
most of single mothers with two children earned just under $18,800. Furthermore, there is a
division between with fathers and mothers. With each child a family has, women see their
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average income relative to men go down about 7.5% after the first child. There are two terms, a
mommy tax and a daddy bonus. The former is used for working women which punishes
them with a decrease in salary because of the common belief that they will be less dedicated to
their job. The latter refers to a daddy bonus because they think that men are more responsible
after becoming a father and are rewarded with higher paid and promotion (National Women's
Law Center, 2015). To prove that how this injustice affected, PayScale, an online crowd sourced
income database did a new massive survey of 1.4 million full-time workers. The survey
investigated employees about family status, age, industry, job type and some factors that affected
pay for men and women. The survey found that married men earn the highest overall salaries
($67,900 for men with children; $60,800 for those without) whereas single moms have the
lowest overall earnings ($38,200). (Fast Company, 2015)
Among 38 of the worlds more developed countries, the US has the lowest maternal pay and this
contributes to widening the gender wage gap (Pew Research Center, 2013). The average age to
get married for women in America is 26. Around 64 percent women with children under six
years old in 2013 were working (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2014). In 40 percent of households
with children under 18 years old, women are the primary breadwinners. However, when women
take a leave to give birth, their salaries decrease by 4 percent, and that penalty is significantly
worse for women who earn low payment. Ridiculously, for men, fatherhood increases income by
more than 6 percent (TechRepulic, 2015). It is clear that maternity leave in America should be
considered when considering the gender pay gap.
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Personal Perspective
Some women have shared their stories about the dissatisfaction with unfair payment. One is
Cheryl Hughes who worked as an engineer. Hughes did everything which the men in the same
field did but never got the same salary as them. She said that during her career as an engineer,
she lost more than $1 million in earnings because she is an African American woman. Another
story is from Maxine Lampe, who experienced the same situation as Hughes. Lampe started her
job as an educator in the early 1970s and she didnt get the head-of-household payment that was
the same as men although at that time, she was the breadwinner in the family because her
husband was in graduate school. Then, she went to a public school and due to her gender as well
as her marital status, she got into trouble with payment. This time she asked for a salary
negotiation and received an answer from one of the board members that since her husband was a
professor, and that is enough for her family she had no need for as much earnings. These are
stories which need to be known because they are common occurrences. It is safe to say there
remain a great number of unknown stories about unfair payment due to difference in gender. It
seems the case of Cheryl Hughes is extremely ridiculous, but not only Cheryl Hughes
experienced problems with the gender pay gap but there are a number of women who also have
the same problem. This takes place everyday and directly affects women. Societys stereotyping
of womens capacities and skills as well as women's lack of flexibility at work still prevents
women from getting the right position in their job and the reasonable earnings despite their
abilities. Women all over the can suffer from the gender pay gap and if it cannot be tackled, they
will continue to suffer.
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Future scenarios
It is apparent that in the future the gender pay gap will be narrowed. Because it is a global issue
all parties have to work together to figure out the solution. It has been nearly 45 years since the
Equal Pay Act came into force and the gender pay gap still remains a serious issue. Certainly
thats much too long a wait. Ensuring that women receive the amount of money that they deserve
is not easy. According to ILO, that process should take 81 years due to the large and severe scope
of the case (AAUW, 2015). In present, that figure is quite big, and differences from countries to
countries. If the government can not solve the problem, people all over the world, especially
women, will continually suffer from being paid unfairly. Therefore, it is necessary for all
governments as well as organizations to give a hand, to create equal payment for both men and
women.
Overall, although the trend of the gender pay gap has seen progress, the gender pay gap remains
the norm. Phrased differently, the deduction of the gender pay gap is moving in the right
direction, but it is not moving fast enough. The gap in earnings shows that the difference in
earnings between men and women is stubbornly stable or slightly increased, due largely to
womens progress in education and workforce participation and also to mens income raising
slowly. During the period of 41 years from 1974 to 2014, the gap has decreased by 20 percent. It
narrowed 0.49 percent per year. Unless everybody put an effort to tackle the gap, it is unlikely to
erase on its own. From now to that time, women themselves must make significant efforts to
improve this. They should be the first one to fight for their rights and their profits. As seen from
the graph, the rate of gender pay gap gradually increased recently so the case is not easy to work
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out at all. But if the issue can be close in the next 81 years, it will be perfect for human beings to
enjoy the life.
(AAUW, 2015)
If the gender pay gap can be closed, it brings out a number of benefits. First, it is helpful for
employers and workers since equality between males and females is crucial for creating quality
jobs. The companies should also recruit and keep the best workers and take advantage of human
resources and increase productivity and competitiveness among employees as well. Besides,
closing the gender financial gap gives positive profits to the economy as whole. Women have
played an important and irreplaceable role in economic growth since their skills and ability are
essential for the economy and social development. Although women invest a great deal of effort
in their job, this is not reflected exactly in their income and position in the labour market. Since
society undervalues the talent of women in work and does not make use of womens skills, they
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lose a great deal of resources for the economy and society at large .If society can improve this,
they can allow women to better contribute to the economy and create considerable economics
stimulation (Huffpost politics, 2012).
Also, erasing the gap in earning between men and women can promote social justice and give
equal opportunities for all workers. Closing the gender pay can help to motivate womens
performances and independence at work. If women get an equal payment for their jobs, it can
create a very good competitive environment among male and female workers. Therefore, their
performance at work can be improved considerably. Moreover, with higher salaries, they can be
independent to solve financial problems themselves and support their families.
If there was pay equity, the added tax revenue would be in the billions, and fewer women would
qualify for tax breaks geared for low incomes. In a study conducted for the provincial-territorial
Ministers of Education in 1991, researchers concluded that Canada's GDP has a tendency on
rising significantly in the future decades if women participate in the labor force on an equal basis
as men (New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women, 1996). By the year 2036, the
scenario where women participate equally would produce a Gross Domestic Product that would
be $335 billion larger than under the scenario in which womens labor force participation
remained virtually unchanged. The study The Pay Gap - Causes, Consequences and Actions by
the New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women in May 1996 stated that
This optimistic forecast cannot be realized, however, unless much stronger and more
comprehensive measures are taken to improve womens access to education and
training opportunities.
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(New Brunswick Advisory Council on the Status of Women, 1996)
Overall, women can expect a bright scenario of their income and the decrease of the gender pay
gap if the government can figure out the appropriate solution to reduce the gap.
What is more, the improvement in gender pay gap can contribute to the reduction of poverty. It
can reduce the risk of poverty in women over 65 from 22 percent and 16 percent (European
Commission, 2016). Because of the gender pay gap, female poverty is getting worse. Some
women must be struggling to cover all the expensive services for their family nowadays. It is
even much more difficult in cases when single mothers have to raise their children or elderly
people. Provided that women can improve their income, they can improve their family's life
standard too and reduce the quantity of the poor. Therefore, cutting down the gender pay implies
benefits not only for women but also for men, children and the elderly, and for the poor as well
as the rich (Costa & Silva, 2008).
Solutions
In the U.S, the figure shows that women have made enormous progress in the last 50 years to
move up in both educational achievements and higher paying jobs (National Women's Law
Center, 2015). Shrinking the financial pay gap has seen the positive side during the past 50
years. But closing the gender pay gap is a revolution in which all parties and people must work
together to get the most effective course of actions. At present, there are a number of solutions
that have been carried out to shrink the gap and many of them are being done very well.
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First, policy makers have passed the Equal Pay Act in 1963 which is the most important step to
ensure equal pay for women. Then, The Equal Pay Act guaranteed that women get the same
payment as men when they work in the same field. The government also takes some critical
measures to help women achieve pay parity such as providing a lot of incentives for employers
who follow the law, calling for support from federal enforcement and banning retribution against
workers who ask for wage practices. President Obama recently required that all companies with
100 employees or more to report data related to payment by gender of their workers. This helped
women a lot because the companies will adjust the salary for their employees among men and
women in order to guarantee the equality at work. The law has helped women a lot when they
have the same job as men. However, the case doesnt always work that way. When womens
careers are different from men then the law cannot help (United States Department of Labor,
2015). Therefore, the Paycheck Fairness Act which was introduced recently will update and
strengthen the EPA in important ways. These critical changes include requiring employers to
demonstrate that salary differences are due to factors rather than gender, intensifying punishment
for breaking the equal pay law, and strictly prohibiting retaliation against employees who raise
their voice for their right. In addition, there are some more helpful changes such as asking the
Department of Labor to assist employers in collecting data related gender payment. Then
companies can make some comparisons between employees within clearly defined geographical
areas to decide their income. Last but not least, the Paycheck Fairness Act also apply some
additional training for Equal Employment Opportunity Commission staff to better identify and
handle wage dispute. By passing and following the Paycheck Fairness Act, the government has
helped to narrow the wage gap significantly, from 41 percent in 1963 to 22 percent in 2015.
(National Womens Law Center, 2015)
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Second, the government as well as employers should raise the minimum wage. Women make up
a high proportion of low-wage laborers, and estimates demonstrate that contracts between
womens and mens careers could contribute to about one-half of the gender pay gap. Raising the
lowest pay will offer hardworking women some assistance in supporting their family. While
nearly 66% of mothers are breadwinners or co- breadwinners for their families, women
accounted for around 66% of lowest pay workers in 2012. The present salary for women is $7.25
every hour, which implies somebody works 40 hours per week, year round earns only $15,080 a
year. This number is just slightly higher the poverty line for a single adult and for any families
with young children to afford their life. Expanding the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour
would support wages for around 15 million women and could make a real difference in
decreasing the gender pay gap.
Next, encourage women to increase their negotiation skills to ensure they can be paid a proper
salary. Men are usually paid a high salary because they actively ask for it. When getting a job,
51.5 percent of men and 12.5 percent of women required that they promote their income. In
addition, when they did ask, they just asked for 30 percent less than men requested. Since
starting payments decide raises and future salaries, women who do not bargain for a higher
income lose nearly $750,000 for middle- income and $2,000,000 for high- income job during
their work. (Linda Babcock, 2016). However, while men are rewarded for negotiating, women
are penalized instead (International New York Times, 2016). Therefore, a lot of organizations
have established to coach women to negotiate for raising their salary. Also, companies have
changed corporate practice so people who set compensation are aware of the disparity and
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support women during negotiations. At present, the American Association of University
Womens salary negotiation workshops help empower women when it comes to salary, benefits
and promotions. This solution makes modern women confident more than ever before and might
work to close the gender pay gap.
Last but not least, employers should publish their employees salaries. It works efficiently when
companies are asked to disclose pay information. Since the Paycheck Fairness Act was set up, it
has reduced pay gap, create better tools for women to address pay discrimination and make it
more difficult for companies to pay male workers more than female ones. President Obama in
2014 required federal contractors to report the payment information by sex to the Labor
Department. Alexandre Mas, an economist at Princeton University, studied the effects of a 2010
California law that required cities to publish salaries of its citizens and found that salaries of men
were cut down a lot and those of women increased. It is supposed that women might have been
promoted to ask for raising payment after seeing that their salaries were lower or cities might
have balanced the salaries to avoid lawsuits. Marc Benioff, the CEO of Salesforce.com, noticed
an important finding last year. The company spent more than $3 million to makes womens
income equal to mens. It seems that this course of action is really working in combatting the
gender wage gap in America. (Taipei Times, 2016)
Reflection
After finding out enough facts and evidence on the gender pay gap to accomplish the paper, I
have had a number of amazing experiences. The gender pay gap considerably attracted me: how
women and men are paid differently and how women would stand up for that is fascinating.
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Obviously, this form of discrimination is severely unjust and unacceptable, yet this is still
unavoidable. I feel like this is not just about fairness, feminism and wages, its about economic
growth in the US too. Since women make up the majority of the population both in the US and
worldwide, their earnings certainly affect the global economics. Based on the statistics, the
gender pay gap has directly influenced women and in fact, I could be involved because Im a
woman too. This is not only unfair but highly degrading to the morals of women all over the US.
It sends a message that no matter how hard women work, they can never equal up to a male and
this is completely wrong. Once I enter the workforce, it is an inevitable problem, not only with
me but with half of the population all over the world. It was not until I researched information
about the case that I realized that it is a global problem. As more and more women enter the
workplace, this gap will naturally fluctuate further. The claim I make is more of a hope, for us
women to keep on fighting for an equal pay just as much if not more than men and continue
striving for the best for ourselves.
The gender pay gap exists for many complex reasons. The gender pay gap hasn't moved much in
recent years and is probably to be expected. There are two types of discrimination: direct and
indirect, the fact that women make up the majority of jobs primarily of part-time and low-paid
workers, and the relative lack of promotion opportunities for women regarding the term
mommy tax, are also factors. Personally I feel that women should be paid equally to men,
especially single mothers because they have to raise not only one but two or more children by
themselves. Men want to have families, women too and they should not get blamed for that. As
the life standard is increasing, it is even more important to that women are being paid as much as
men receive.
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Women lose over 241 million dollars of pay every year due to direct discrimination even though
women earn 71 percent of mens wages, so this means after women work, study and achieve
what men can do, we still get paid less. By researching the reasons for the case, I can find proper
solutions to deal with it. We can tackle the gender pay gap by, for instance, embracing that there
is no reason for the social order to saddle women with most of the worlds unpaid work. Also, we
can examine the real personal and systemic biases that are distorting the way that we look at
women in the workplace and outside of it.
The gender financial ratio, however, is decreasing a little bit every year and the case is being
repaired. It is good to know that narrowing the gender pay gap can help a lot of issues related to
the salary of men and women such as increasing motivation for women on work or reducing the
poverty of male workers. I myself feel positive about the case because most governments and
organizations all over the world give a hand to erase this disturbing stubborn gap, yet result of
my research shows that the gender pay gap persists. Society need to work together to overcome
the old stereotype of women into lower paid functions and industry. It will take time, of course
since it is a worldwide problem. However, we are on the road to a solution and itll will end,
hopefully sometimes in my future.
By studying about the gender pay gap, I have equipped myself with a large amount of knowledge
and skills to deal with the case. Plenty of people told me that the gender pay gap exists because
women arent as good at negotiating pay rises and promotions. I often hear stories of unequal pay
between men and women for the similar work. So lets assume in some of these cases, men have
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indeed argued for promotions. But shouldnt women be rewarded for good performance and
behavior, rather than increase the money simply because somebody asks? I will equip with
myself enough knowledge and necessary skills to fulfill my job so I can fight in crucial cases if I
am treated unfairly at work. As an educated woman, I wish to be treated equally on all fronts
when I start my career. I support federal legislation such as the Paycheck Fairness Act and the
Fair Pay Act because equal work deserves equal pay. Either men or women, provided they are
serious about their work, deserve to get equal pay. Women need to take a stand against the
gender pay gap and prove that we are tough and good enough to get the same pay as men.
Conclusion
It is safe to say the gender pay gap considerably affects the economy and society of a country as
well as hurts women and families considerably. It is also one of the most serious issues raised in
America which can affect women considerably. We should thank women who have devoted their
lives to the recognition of the female identity; not only did they do it for themselves, they did it
for every woman around the world. It would definitely take generation after generation, war after
war, and petition after petition, to tackle the gender gap completely, which although is still a
work in progress. I believe it is very important for women to begin accepting and appreciating
each others life decisions, whether it be to enter the workforce, stay at home to raise a family, or
both. Women should back each other up and help each other out. I have faith that the society will
begin respecting and appreciating the hard work and dedication of all different lifestyles.
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The Gender Pay Gap

Definition and Analysis

(Center for American Progress, 2013)

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