Is The Gender Pay Gap - 1880 Words

Seventy-seven cents to the dollar. A simple phrase used to describe the gender pay gap. Most people who use this phrase in casual conversation do not really know what this entails. It is much more than men earning more than women. The significance of this pay discrepancy becomes much more apparent when looking at the bigger picture. Over an entire lifetime of working, a woman making only 77 cents to the male dollar loses a total of $1.2 million dollars over the course of her working life (Murphy Graff, 2005). A risk of poverty for women living with a pay gap is high. According to the European Commission, the at-risk-of-poverty rate is around 22 percent for women, compared to the 16 percent of men. So why is the gender pay†¦show more content†¦The National Bureau of Economic Research points to labor market discrimination and overall trends in wage structure to explain why the wage gap exists. Discrimination in the labor market may lower women’s incentives to invest in their qualifications. The second factor of trends in wage structure refers to the terms the market sets for various skills or for employment in particular occupations or industries (Blau Kahn, 2001). Other factors contributing to the wage gap have since been considerably ameliorated, factors including gender gaps in education, skills, experience, as well as occupational segregation and career breaks (Kulow, 2013). According to Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations from the stimulus material, â€Å"The wages of labor in different employments vary according to the probability or improbability of success in them.† He then brings up an example of how mechanic jobs, such as carpentry and masonry, have almost certain success, meanwhile, success is very uncertain in the liberal professions. In a study done by the United States Department of Labor, the most common jobs for women consist of education administrators, teacher assistants, social workers, and secretaries- all the â€Å"liberal† professions. For men, their most common jobs include managers, carpenters, and laborers. The data, supported by Smith’s findings, prove that men do earn more than women, creating a gap in wages. Although the Equal Pay Act in 1963Show MoreRelatedGender Gap In Pay1574 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction Gender Pay Gap also referred to as Gender wage gap, gender income difference or male-female income difference refers to the difference between the earning of men and women (Victoria, 2006). The European Union defines the Gender Pay gap as the difference between men and women’s hourly earnings (OECD, 2012). The difference may be measured on hourly, weekly, monthly, or yearly earning. The difference is expressed as a percentage of the men’s earning. However, the difference varies fromRead MoreThe Gender Pay Gap1639 Words   |  7 PagesThe Gender Pay Gap PROBLEM Introduction The pay gap between men and women has fallen quite dramatically over the past 30 years though a sizeable gap still remains, but this headline figure masks some less positive developments in recent years. We are used to each generation of women making progress relative to the one before, but this process has slowed slightly with the better than the previous one(Centre Piece Summer 2006). The gender pay gap measures the earning differences betweenRead MoreThe And Gender Pay Gap932 Words   |  4 Pagesarrangements. Feminism has been one of the successful social movements, and has promoted alternative types of the American family. The movement has different priorities in each society, and in the United States one of the issues is the â€Å"gender pay gap†. Gender pay gap is defined as the average difference between men’s and women’s aggregate hourly earnings (European Commission, 2014). According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in 2014 the median weekly earnings for workers with at least a bachelor’sRead MoreGender And Gender Pay Gap1173 Words   |  5 Pages Gender pay gaps have been a hot topic over the last several years. In my findings, I found three articles that stood out the most to me, as well as some statistical information. Gender pay gap is an interesting subject because it happens all across the United States, as well as in o ther countries worldwide. This pay gap can affect women of all ages, race, religion and educational levels. What is gender pay gap? The gender pay gap is defined as the difference between women and men’s full time averageRead MoreGender Pay Gap2020 Words   |  8 PagesGender Pay Gap The economic issue with the gender pay gap has been a concern for quite some time. 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(AFP/GettyRead MoreWhy The Gender Pay Gap Essay1692 Words   |  7 PagesVincent (2013) provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis on why the gender pay gap exists in Canada by researching, studying, analyzing, and interpreting over 39 different sources of Canadian micro data and finds that the gender pay gap has decreased over the years but still persists even in younger generations, less than a third of the pay gap can be explained through females over-occupying lower sector jobs, women placing a larger emphasize on non- monetary related aspects of a jobRead MoreGender Equality And The Pay Gap895 Words   |  4 Pages The gender pay gap has always been an issue concerning the work force and those apart of it. Men have always made more money than women no matter the occupation, and pay discrimination needs to be stopped. It s even been documented that women are more active and educated in labor force but still receive 78 cents for every dollar a man makes. The pay gap is affecting all women and impacting those of all races, ethnic groups, ages, education levels, and is a problem in every state. A change needsRead MoreGender Inequality : Gender Pay Gap975 Words   |  4 PagesThe gender pay gap in Hollywood 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 narrowingRead MoreGender Inequality And Gender Pay Gap1543 Words   |  7 Pagesthe gender pay gap in the UK. These theories are taste discrimination, statistical discrimination, human capital and occupational segregation. Other research and data are included in this essay as evidence to support the different theories. The four theories covered in this essay all provide some explanation for the gender pay gap in the UK, some more than others – statistical discrimination theory having the highest explanatory power for t he magnitude of this pay gap. The gender pay gap can be