Across the globe, countries have varying degrees of gender pay inequalities due to differences in their policies. In the U.S., the gender wage difference has significantly reduced since the 1980s. In 2018, men only earned 15% more than women from both full and part-time employment, with women required to labor approximately 40 days to match the wage of male workers ( Graf, Brown & Patten, 2019 ). The gender pay disparity had decreased by 5% from 2017, implying that the U.S. labor sector values equality between the two genders in terms of earnings. Unlike the U.S., Japan is making little progress in gender pay equality, with the gap standing at approximately 24.5% as of 2018. Among the members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Japan has the second highest-earning disparity between male and female employees ( Yamaguchi, 2019 ). Differently, the Canadian gender wage difference in 2018 calculated per hour stood at 13.3%, implying that women earned $4.13 less as compared to men per hour ( Pelletier, Patterson & Moyser, 2019 ). In the three countries, the gender pay gap is influenced by the policies in place and how they are implemented.
Although the U.S. has progressive policies to curb gender inequality and particularly pay gap, the government can escalate their implementation. The Equal Pay Act (1963) asserted by President John F. Kennedy focused on alleviating the pay gap in the U.S. from 24% (“ Equal Pay Act of 1963”, 2016 ). The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is authorized to implement federal laws on equality in employment. The commission principally targets any discrimination in job applications because of gender, ethnicity, religion, and age, among others (“ About the EEOC: Overview," 2019 ). The commission, therefore, plays a crucial role in managing gender pay disparity. The Equal Employment Act of 1972 bestows the EEOC with the mandate to sue in a court of law employers found to have discriminated people based on the above factors. This act strengthens the Equal Pay Act in that both work to ensure that gender inequality is not institutionalized in salary and remuneration matters.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
In Canada, gender equality is provided for by section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Under this charter, the government passed into law the Canadian Human Rights Act (CHRA), which protects pay parity ("Equal pay for work of equal value - Canada.ca," 2016). CHRA states that it is a biased practice to institute and maintain a wage gap between men and women laborers of an organization. The act is fortified by the guidelines of the Equal Remuneration Convention, which guarantees equal wages. In case of any pay discrimination based on gender, the Canadian Human Rights Commission encourages affected employees to file a complaint with them.
Although both the U.S. and Canada need to scale up in the implementation of equal pay between the two genders, Japan lacks a specific law for this purpose. In Japan, wages and remuneration are offered based on regular and non-regular workers with differing terms of employment. Regular workers are hired on indefinite terms, and they are strongly protected against firing and downsizings. Contrarily, the non-regular workers are contractually employed with numerous obligations attached to their contracts. Moreover, regular workers have higher pay than non-regular workers. Unfortunately, most non-regular workers are women, which collaborates with the large gender pay inequality in Japan. The Work Style Reforms Legislation approved in 2018 is aimed at revising Japan’s employment laws (“ Significant Changes to Japan's Labor Laws Will Take Effect in April 2019”, 2018). The reforms do not address the problem of gender pay inequality. The Equal Pay for Equal Work set to be effective in 2020 will aim to lift the pay division between regular and non-regular human resources (Yashiro, 2019). Nevertheless, the law appears as controversial since it contradicts the seniority system of wages widely accepted in Japan.
In the 21 st century, gender pay gaps should not be prominent, especially in developed countries such as the US, Canada, and Japan. Both the U.S. and Canada have more defined employment and remuneration laws compared to Japan. However, these two countries have significant gender pay gaps that need to be addressed. For the case of Japan, the problem with the pay system is rooted in its seniority system of wages where regular workers are paid more than non-regulars. For Japan to realize progress in this sphere, it should overhaul its employment culture by developing and implementing policies and laws that institutionalize gender equality.
References
About the EEOC: Overview. (2019). Retrieved 6 December 2019, from www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/index.cfm
Equal Pay Act of 1963 (U.S. National Park Service). (2016). Retrieved 6 December 2019, from www.nps.gov/articles/equal-pay-act.htm
Equal pay for work of equal value - Canada.ca. (2016). Retrieved 6 December 2019, from www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/innovation/equitable-compensation.html
Graf, N., Brown, A., & Patten, E. (2019). The Narrowing, But Persistent, Gender Gap in Pay. Retrieved 6 December 2019, from www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/03/22/gender-pay-gap-facts/
Pelletier, R., Patterson, M., & Moyser, M. (2019). The gender wage gap in Canada: 1998 to 2018. Retrieved 6 December 2019, from www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/75-004-m/75-004-m2019004-eng.htm
Significant Changes to Japan's Labor Laws Will Take Effect in April 2019: Are You Prepared? | Lexology. (2019). Retrieved 6 December 2019, from www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=c2151da8-a094-4494-97ad-25d5bf8476ab
Yamaguchi, K. (2019). Japan's Gender Gap: A Lack of Gender Equality in Career Opportunity and Long Work Hours Perpetuate Wage Differences Between Men and Women [Ebook] (56th ed., pp. 1-5). Chicago: University of Chicago. Retrieved from www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/03/pdf/gender-equality-in-japan-yamaguchi.pdf
Yashiro, N. (2019). Serious flaws in Japan’s new ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’ law | East Asia Forum. Retrieved 6 December 2019, from www.eastasiaforum.org/2019/11/08/serious-flaws-in-japans-new-equal-pay-for-equal-work-law/
