Introduction:
On January 29, 2016, The White House Press Office released a FACT SHEET on new steps to advance equal pay for women. This FACT SHEET states that,
“the median wage of a woman working full-time all year in the United States is about $39,600—only 79 percent of a man’s median earnings of $50,400” (The White House, 2016).
However, many scholars and economists disagree that a gender wage gap exists. In addition, conservative political experts and bloggers promote the notion that gender based wage gap is an idea propagated by feminists, women empowering organizations, and progressives. However, almost all the working women in the United States, and organizations such as Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IRWP), and American Association of University Women (AAAU), strongly believe in the existence of the gender wage gap.
This sociological issue of equal pay for women is extremely relevant in today’s environment where women perform equal work as men in many occupations. Furthermore, with almost 50% of the work force being women, women contributing equally to the family income, and a large number of women being the single parents supporting children, lack of equal pay over time could increase the poverty rates for women (White House, 2016). In addition, IWPR’s 2015 report on the status of American women, states that if women receive equal pay for the same work, the poverty rate among women will see a reduction from 8.2% to 4%, an almost 50% reduction (Hess et
“Women earn only 77 cents for every dollar men earn, with women of color at an even greater disadvantage with 64 cents on the dollar for African American women and 56 cents for Hispanic women.” — White House Statement of Administration Policy on Paycheck Fairness Act, June 4. [2]
After years of Civil Rights Movements and Pay Equity Acts, as of 2014, women still only make 79 cents to a man 's every dollar. Although the wage gap has shrunk since the 1970’s, progress has recently stalled and chances of it vanishing on its own is unlikely. The gains that American women have made towards labor market experience and skills is tremendous. In fact, women account for 47% of labor workforce and 49.3% of American jobs. But despite of women’s strides, a gender pay gap still exists. Experts suggest that it will take 100 years to close the gap at the rate employers and legislators are working to create solutions. But by allowing women to work in higher paying positions and by proposing and updating pay equity laws, the gender gap can finally be diminished.
There is a 21% pay gap between women ($0.79) and men ($1.00). Full time working
Equal pay is a problem on a global scale. Over 145 countries have a documented pay wage gap (Werft). One would hope the United States would have the smallest wage gap, but in 2016, the United States was in only 45th place in the smallest wage gap (“Rankings”). In fact, most women in the United States only make $0.77 compared to a whole dollar they should earn. The state with the worst wage gap is Louisiana, with only, on average $0.69 for every man’s dollar (“Rankings”). One in three of the 15.2 million families headed by women have fallen below the poverty line, leaving their children to suffer in poverty
It has been more than fifty years since the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was enacted, yet gender pay gap still exists today. According to National Women’s Law Center, women are paid only 80 cent for every dollar their male counterpart are paid. According to American Association of University Women, the total estimated loss of earnings for women compared to men over the course of 45 years are $700,000 for a high school graduate, $1.2 million for a college graduate, and $2 million for a professional school graduate. Although there are many factors that are responsible for gender pay gap, 40% of the pay gap is due to discrimination according to a report by the Joint Economic Committee Democratic Staff. By discriminating women, we, as a society, are telling
For the first time in history women had surpassed men in the paid labor force. Yet, instead of provoking an equality among the sexes, the figures play no statistical significance, as women still try to bridge the gap between their inequality among their male counterparts. One apparent setback for women in the workplace is their unequal payment, “Women workers are still paid less than men, currently about-three quarters of mens income if they work full time and year round”(Institute for Womens’s Policy Research, 2010). Although there women are beginning to integrate into vastly male populated jobs throughout the labor force “… women in America today earn 78 cents to a man’s dollar, according to the U.S Census Bureau, and have struggled for decades to achieve pay for equal work” (Riley 2). Not only has this pay gap significantly effected the nature of women throughout the county, it has also violated the bill that Congress passed called the Equal Pay Act of 1963. The Equal Pay Act was signed in order to establish a more sound and equal treatment among the sexes. It noted that an employer was unable to discriminate employees on grounds of gender, yet as figures denote today, this bill seems to not possess enough jurisdiction over the wage gap. The wage gap has contributed to various problems within the United States, especially among single mothers who do not have a supporting male figure within their household.
The gender pay gap is the difference in pay earned by men and the pay earned by women.( Pay Equity Commission, 2012). There are various ways in measuring the pay gap between genders, such as full- time or full- year wage. Statistics Canada data ( 2012) displayed that the gender pay gap in Ontario was 26% for full- time and full- year employments, which means for every C$1 earned by a man, a woman earned 74 cents( Pay Equity Commission,2012).The pay gap has been narrowing slowly over time compared to the how it was in 1987, which was 36%. However the gender wage gap is still a problem that exists in the society. I will discuss about the feminist theory and how it can be interpreted in the gender pay gap of our society, especially in regards to celebrities.
However, results can be skewed if part time workers and the hours worked isn’t taken into consideration. There are around 46,268,000 women working full time in the U.S. (all facts are as of 2013) and 57,994,000 men. Only 1,173,000 women worked more than 60 hours a week while nearly 3 and a half million men work over 60. With average wages being factored through average weekly earnings, the greater mass of men that work so much can tip the scale to make it look as if men make more. Another factor is the fact that nearly 16 million women work part time and only 8.7 million men do.
The average woman in the United States makes approximately $82.90 for every dollar their male counterparts make. (Elsesser). While those 20 cents may seem inconsequential to you, they add up. Losing that much money all year can be the difference between someone living in poverty, and someone living a nice life. The gender pay gap is the cause of this problem. Around the world, women are losing money just because of what gender they are. The gender wage gap is a huge problem, that can only be solved by going to extreme measures, such as requiring people to release their employees wage gap and passing new laws.
Throughout the history of the United States, equality for all has been a highly sought-after, yet controversial aspect of American life. Whether it was the period of Native American reorganization or the destructive era of Southern slavery, it has been equality that continues to be denied to a certain group of citizens. In order to combat this, many efforts have been made to influence equality in all elements of citizen’s lives. However, in today’s society, many of these attempts have failed to be noticed, for true equality has yet to be entirely achieved. Notably, working women all over the country have been denied equal wages to that of men. Thus, condoning the use of wage discrimination against women in the workplace is unjust and inequitable because women perform many of the same jobs as men do, they are entitled to the same basic rights as the rest of society, and because laws have already been passed to illegalize wage discrimination based on gender. Both men and women in the labor force are expected of comparable tasks and performances, yet the payment that women receive as compensation remains noticeably less than that of men.
The gender pay gap is a problem nationwide in the United States. It is a phenomenon that affects women of all education levels, ages, and races. Although it varies in a state-by-state basis, the pay gap is prevalent in all states (Miller, 2017). The issue is also occupation-wide, meaning that nearly every occupation will have a gender gap (Miller, 2017). Statistics from The Simple Truth About the Gender Pay Gap have shown that while an increase in education help women earn more, it does not eliminate the problem all together or close the gap (Miller, 2017). As of recent statistics, women are paid approximately 80 cents for every dollar a man makes, however, the gap is worse for women of color, especially, when compared to the salary of that of white men; African American women earn 63% of the salary that white men earn, Native American women earn 58%, and the largest gap is for Latina women, who earn only 54% (Miller, 2017).
So what is the wage gap? The wage gap is the median earnings of men and the median earnings of women summed up and compared, no other variables were controlled for this study. After all the data was collected, it was found that women make 78 cents to every dollar a man makes. Feminists use this study to prove there is still inequality and that this inequality is due to discrimination, even though it is illegal to discriminate pay based on gender or race. Are feminists correct, are women really being discriminated against in the workplace? The short answer is no, the gap is due to the different choices the average woman makes. Which can be shown if we look at people in their early to late 20s, women in this age range out earn their male
Time evolves to the extent where women are given more opportunities than ever. However, a wage disparity still exists between men and women. Today, the wage gap exists; on average, women only make 79 cents for every dollar a man makes. How fair, am I right? When this country was structured by the founding fathers, they vowed to create a capital market that guarantees equal treatment for all. However, this system was never adopted and results in a disparity in pay between genders. Likewise, females have begun to play a more punctual role in the robust economy today, in comparison to the days of being suburban housewives. Therefore, both genders have the fundamental right to be paid an equal wage. Looking back into the past of America’s constantly
The gender pay gap is generally measured as the variance between men and women’s average weekly pay equivalent of full-time earnings, expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings (WGEA, 2017b). Unequal pay, where women and men do the same work and are paid at differing rates, based on
The twenty-third article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that every human has the right to work. In that article it also states that each person has the right to equal pay for equal work without being discriminated against. To this day reports show that women in the United States still earn typically around fifteen to twenty-five percent less than men, annually. More women graduate from universities than men in the states today yet still earn less than men. A common excuse for the difference in pay is that women take off more time to care for their children. Men in the United States got the right to vote over two-hundred years ago. It was close to one hundred years ago that women finally got the right to vote and it is quite