After learning about gender issues in the workplace, I wanted to learn more about the wage gap. I found a really interesting article talking about the wage gap. Essentially the wage gap is a statistical reference that shows the differences between the earnings of men and women. For example, in 2006 women earned 76.6% as much as men. So women on average earn $0.77 compared to every $1 men earn. The thought that women can do the same exact work as men with the same educational background and still earn less can be very frustrating. In 1963 people tried to close this wage gap between men and women by passing the Equal Pay Act. This act makes it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women who hold the same job and do the same work. The unfortunate truth is that this Act didn't solve the problem; however it did improve the problem. In 1963, every women earned $0.58 for every dollar earned by a man. Sadly enough though since this Act was passed wages for women have only improved less than half a cent a year! According to the article, "During a lifetime of full-time work (47 years) this gap amounts to an estimated loss in wages for women of $700,000 for high school graduates, $1.2 million for a college graduate, and $2 million for a professional school graduate."
After learning all of these new statistics, I decided that we still have a long way to go when it comes to equality in the workplace. There should be no reason to unequally pay 2 employees when the only difference between them is their gender. The thought of this just makes me angry because it is pretty much saying that men can do a better at their job so they should get paid more.
Have you ever experienced unequal pay by your employer just because of your gender or race? If so how did it make you feel?
What are your thoughts on the wage gap?
The article I am referring to is http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0763170.html
3 comments:
I think that this is a really interesting article and it upsets me, being a women that is entering the workforce, so I did a little more research in order to find out why this is something that is still going on. The main reason that most articles pointed to was that there were more men working in jobs that were higher paying then many of the jobs that women were taking. I think this goes back to the idea that we just talked about in class about how women are forced into these "feminine" jobs such as a secretary, assistant, "2nd hand women" situation where men are the ones that are working in STEM areas getting paid more for their time. I rarely blame the government for things that are going on in our country because I think that it is a cop out but I think that it is important to recognize the fact that they tried to create a solution in the 1960's, that according to this article hasn't helped much, but I think that it is now time for them to take some other action to make this a more level playing field.
I don't think people consciously pay personnel differently based on gender. There has to be some other factors that the study is not considering. Consider the following:
Does the survey compare apples to apples? What I mean is do the researchers go to all teachers, doctors, engineers, pilots, etc....collect their pay information and the analyze the data with respect to gender. Does the survey account for higher education. Remember advancement in the jobs I just mentioned has allot to do with pay.
Or does the survey do the easy thing and take a sum of all the money earned from full time male and female workers and analyze the data and assume that their are equal male and female workers at each job (which we know is not true).
I guess I am questioning their research methods.
I never thought that I had experienced the wage gap until our class discussion about it. I have always been aware that women make less money in comparison to men even though it is illegal to pay a woman less than a man doing the same job and vice versa. However, when Dr. Lucas brought up the issue of separating men and women in the work place and giving them different job opportunities. She talked about at the movie theater she worked at women worked in concessions and men worked in the projector room and the projectionists made more money. I realized that this is so prevalent and we don't even recognize it when it is happening. This also correlates with men being promoted faster than women simply because they can get in with male boss easier than a woman can. I have watched my sister and my mother experience this and it hurts me to think that it still happens. Neither of my parents have a college degree and my parents met while workin at the same company. Granted they each held different positions relating to different aspects of the job, but 30 years later my dad is in an executive position while my mom has been a glorified "assistant" her entire career. This bothers me because I know my mom can do better but she seems to think she can't be promoted without a college degree.... but on the flip side my dad was able to do this. Let's keep in mind that my dad makes twice as much as my mom. I know this could be circumstantial because of positions, skills, and personalities, but from my point of view my mom is experiencing a glass cieling. She is stuck in an administrative assistant position for the entirety of her 30 year career and is unable to be promoted for two reasons. 1) She doesn't have a college degree. 2) she is an assistant. However because she is a woman she became an assistant, and because she is a woman she was not promoted like my dad was even though he has the same level of education.
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