Workplace discrimination in economic opportunities has been an existing problem in the United States that has surpassed numerous decades. For decades, the discrimination has centered on economic opportunities including lack of promotion and gender wage gaps. The gender wage gap is one form of workplace discrimination presented in the form of biases in hiring, pay, and promotion. In the United States, there is an ever-widening gender gap that has seen women earning less than their male counterparts working in the same workplace ( Armani, 2013) . The gender wage gap in an organization involves women receiving lower pay for a similar job position to men. While wage differs between jobs depending on the difficulty of a job and the knowledge and skills required to perform tasks, the wage gap explains differences in pay for employees doing similar jobs and having equal qualifications. This paper discusses the scope of gender wage gap and how dominant cultural views have contributed to the issue. It is a problem in the public policy perspective because it reduces economic outputs and undermines women in the society.
Gender Wage Gap Explained
All around the world there is a tendency to favor men over women in the workplace in terms of hiring, wages and promotion. This means there are few women in top executive positions, which is a significant factor in the gender wage gap since the top executive positions have a correlation with higher wages ( Armani, 2013) . At the same time, companies have been placing harsh judgments on female employees through lower salaries, smaller bonuses and fewer stock options. Due to gender discrimination, women do not receive equal opportunities and have to work for longer before they can achieve equality with men.
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Women have been demanding more equitable policies including equal pay and fair promotional practices to deal with the gender wage gap. There is a history of paying lower salaries to women even among the big organizations. Companies have been discriminating against women during performance evaluation as well as ignoring women employees during promotion despite doing comparable work to men ( Dipboye & Colella, 2013) .
The gender wage gap has also been associated with poor socio-economic status of women employees. This means women are less likely to achieve higher lifetime earnings unless their attachment to the labor force is strengthened. The penalties for taking time out of the labor force are high, which affects women more because they are likely to take time out. While men are also penalized for time out of the workforce, the earnings loss for women during time out is always higher compared to men, which strengthens the gender wage gap debate (Mihăilă, 2016). This is because of their role as mothers where they have to juggle between work and taking care of families.
Statistics
There is enough proof that women in the workplace earn less than their male counterparts despite having similar qualifications and productivity. Reports in the United States have shown a growing trend of widening wage gap, where a median working woman working on full time is paid 80 percent for every dollar that a full-time working man earns ( Armani, 2013) . This means women get 80 cents for every dollar paid to a man when evaluated by wages per hour. When measured in terms of equality, it means women need more hours of work to be on the same page as women when it comes to equality in payment.
Several studies have been published on the scope of gender wage gap and how it compares to other countries around the world ( Othman & Othman, 2015) . For example, female graduates have been shown to make $8000 less than their male counterpart with the same skills and qualifications. The 23 percent gender wage gap has continued to linger and remained the same since 2005 despite measures to bridge it ( Popescu, 2016) . Despite women's advancement in the labor market, gender differences in pay still exist with little changes in the last 15 years. This gender wage gap has increased the risk of women becoming poor than men and contributes to lower social security contributions.
Effect of Cultural Views and Beliefs
The glass ceiling has been used as an excuse to explain the gender wage gap, with explanations that men have better traits and skills than women and therefore qualified for higher wages. Some people have defended the gender wage gap by claiming it will be unfair to give similar pay to individuals whose skills and abilities are unmatched (Verniers & Vala, 2018). This is why men are given priority in the leadership opportunities, which automatically translates to a better pay by the virtue of being leaders. Across the country, men have dominated the helm of leadership and are often favored in performance evaluation and reviews. There seems to be a pyramid scheme for women in the sense that their position in the organization reduces as they go up the leadership ladder.
Women blamed the existing cultural stereotypes for the gender wage gap and lack of positions for women leaders. There is a history of businesses and other corporations icing out female employees out of critical roles while subjecting them to the lower-paying jobs and positions. This culture of gender bias and patriarchal standards leave women demeaned and undervalued without a commitment to diversity and inclusion ( Othman & Othman, 2015) . Due to this culture, most organizations are found to be paying women less than men due to the implicit gender bias ( Dipboye & Colella, 2013) . Numerous organizations across the county have this culture of a discriminate wage structure that favors men over women.
At the same time, sociologists attribute this gender wage gap to discrimination in the workplace that emanates from the top leadership. However, economists have come with a different argument, stating that men earn more than women because they choose to enter high paying occupations with elevated amounts of risks ( Mishra & Mishra, 2015) . There have been arguments that women earn less in the workplace because they choose to work in lower-paying jobs that have lower risks while men handle the riskiest occupations.
At the same time, people have referenced women's education status as a reason for the gender wage differences. For a long time, women have been overlooked in the education sector where priority was given to men, which meant the women lacked enough knowledge and skills to be employed in high paying jobs. The educational status of women meant they settle for the less risky occupations. Generally, jobs with fewer risks have lower compensation compared to those with higher risks (Verniers & Vala, 2018). However, this situation has changed with women getting equal education opportunities as men pursuing similar courses.
The case of the gender wage gap arises from the broader structural processes and practices in the workplace. For example, the corporate culture and nature of leadership cultivated in the organization as seen through recruitment can determine whether and how well an organization deals with the gender wage gap. This persistent issue of gender inequality in employment has highlighted the inability of a society to repatriate a patriarchal system that puts men above women in all areas ( Mishra & Mishra, 2015) .
However, the cultural beliefs are merely an excuse considering no evidence has shown men to be more successful leaders than women. At the same time, women are getting the same educational qualifications as men with enough skills to work in any position. As a result, gender should never be used as a factor to determine who deserves higher wages in an organization.
How the Issue Has Changed Over Time
For a long time, the government has tried to bridge the differences between men and women in the workplace, but results show little progress. Working women in several sectors are still earning less than working men despite continued calls for equality. Despite societal changes towards women in the society, there is still an inequality that is yet to be bridged with research showing that women occupy jobs that generally pay less when compared to the jobs predominantly done by men ( Mishra & Mishra, 2015) .
In essence, there has been increased scrutiny in this gender inequality in pay as more women get into the workplace and leadership positions. There have been tremendous steps made in regard to women and their role in the workplace as they get more into occupations that were previously associated with men to try and bridge the gender wage gap ( Popescu, 2016) . There have been increased cases of women in leadership positions and other executive positions, and they are using this position to help reduce the wage gap. However, despite this change, there is still work needed to achieve complete gender integration of work with occupation segregation contributing to this slow progress in closing the wage gap.
Over time, the issue of the gender wage gap has been changing as women activists and other leaders advocate for equality. Women groups and other social activists have been calling for equality in pay through policies and regulations. Globalization and government regulations among other factors have helped reduce the gender wage gap by ensuring more women get into male-dominated occupations. The women’s gain in work experience and occupational status has increased the call for equality in the wages between men and women and subsequent reduction in women discrimination ( Mishra & Mishra, 2015) . As a result, these factors are helping in shaping the discussion around this whole issue of gender equality in pay and promotion. Some women have been suing their former employers over pay discrimination as a way of protesting against this vice. For example, Nike is one of the companies that came under radar when women filed a lawsuit over pay discrimination.
Furthermore, despite considerable progress over the last few decades, a substantial percentage of women workers today have gone at a year without earnings, which is a rate twice than of men. The gender wage gap for full T-time workers in the United States has been widening despite calls for a more equal workforce. There is a wage gap of about 20 percent between men and women when measured in their weekly earnings even with inflation adjustments ( Armani, 2013) . This inequality is such a problem in the United States, in the sense than a newborn child today is not granted equality upon birth. This discrimination tends to affect women psychologically and physically while interfering with their productivity.
Laws have been enacted in various countries to help reduce gender inequality and bridge the wage gap. For example, there have been employment laws and policies in the United States that focus on reducing gender discrimination in hiring, pay, and promotion. This law grants women the right to sue their employers in a civil court of law over any pay discrimination. Title VII of the civil rights act is another law that works in favor of women by prohibiting any pay discrimination based on race, gender, and religion ( Armani, 2013) . These legislations are focused on reducing the gender wage gap by prosecuting any employer who continues to propagate the discrimination.
Therefore, there seems to be a culture of taking one step forward and two steps back in bridging this gender wage gap. This is because, despite the existence of discriminatory laws in place requiring equality in the workplace, its implementation has not been done maximally. The challenges towards achieving gender equality lie with the inability of organizations to implement the employment law needed to bridge this gap ( Dipboye & Colella, 2013) .
Proposed Solutions
Organizations should review their corporate culture and root out all inappropriate behavior leading to gender discrimination. The human resource department is particularly crucial in creating an appropriate workplace environment that enhances equality. This is because most causes of gender inequalities in the workplace arise within the human resource department and are effected through policies and decisions ( Dipboye & Colella, 2013) . The HR department determines several organization activities such as pay and promotion of employees and therefore are directly involved in understanding women's discrimination.
One of the remedies to this discrimination in pay among men and women gap is creating a law than obliges an employer to uphold equality. For example, the law should ensure workers within a similar job category and same qualifications get equal pay regardless of their gender. At the same time, the organization can deal with this problem by changing the policies around factors such as pay and promotion since gender discrimination arises from the procedures and decision-making processes. For example, organizations can create an equal pay action plan as a policy that focuses on improving the robustness of equal pay to women facing discrimination ( Dipboye & Colella, 2013) . Such an action plan can be the key to reducing the gender gap in the organization.
Another step towards reducing the gender wage gap can be through introducing a fair pay policy that emphasizes equal pay to individuals undertaking similar work in the organization. This means there is a plan that ensures all employees regardless of gender or race earn the same money if they have the same qualifications for a job. Such policies can ensure employees are paid based on merit and not their demographic factors such as gender. Sociologists have also argued on the need to get more women into leadership positions to help bridge the gender gap. This is because most organizations are male-dominated in the leadership positions, which means they lack a feminine voice when making decisions regarding employee wages ( Dipboye & Colella, 2013) . This culture of having only men in the top leadership positions has been blamed with gender discrimination especially when there is no one to challenge their perspectives.
Conclusion
Despite various strides made towards improving the gender wage gap, the gap is still there and not yet closed. Equality in the workplace is yet to be solved due to the presence of implicit discrimination within the culture and society. Discrimination at the workplace has led to struggles in achieving gender inequality, which translates to the widening gap in earnings between men and women. Studies and reports from different areas of the world have shown a 23 percent gap between men and women when it comes to paying ( Popescu, 2016) .
The persistent pay gap and gender inequality in the workplace today is often attributed to the cultural definition of gender. For example, the male-dominated workplaces with underrepresented women in leadership positions make it difficult to achieve equality in pay. Reports from different organizations have shown inherent gender discrimination in many areas other than wages, with women occupying fewer ranks in leadership positions as well ( Dipboye & Colella, 2013) .
However, there are some improvements in trying to bridge this gap with the buck resting on organizational leadership. The executive leadership of businesses needs to craft standards that ensure they uphold the societal need for equal pay between men and women if they have similar qualifications. Some of these steps include an action plan that will improve the robustness of pay and help close pay gaps whenever there is an unsatisfactory explanation to pay disparities.
References
Armani, S. (2013). The gender wage gap in the United States: Current policy and an improved approach for closing the gap. Inquiries Journal , 5 (06).
Dipboye, R. L., & Colella, A. (Eds.). (2013). Discrimination at work: The psychological and organizational bases . Psychology Press.
Mihăilă, R. (2016). Female labor force participation and gender wage discrimination. Journal of Research in Gender Studies , 6 (1), 262-268.
Mishra, B., & Mishra, J. (2015). Discrimination in the Workplace. Journal of Higher Education Theory & Practice , 15 (4).
Othman, Z., & Othman, N. (2015). A literatural review on work discrimination among women employees. Asian Social Science , 11 (4), 26.
Popescu, G. H. (2016). Gender, Work, and Wages: Patterns of Female Participation in the Labor Market. Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics , 4 (1), 128-134.
Verniers, C., & Vala, J. (2018). Justifying gender discrimination in the workplace: The mediating role of motherhood myths. PloS one , 13 (1).
