A lot of people in America are skeptical about the existence of wage discrimination in the country. This is mainly due to the fact that corporate America keeps compensation information a secret, resulting in the lack of evidence for the existence of wage discrimination especially based on gender (Higgins, n.d.). As such, the issue remains a contentious debate that requires a solution. However, this is the painful and persistent reality that prevails. Wage discrimination is encouraged by the secrecy with which companies guard the workers pay information and also the fact that the corporate world pays based on the individual and not the job. In America, wage gaps exist in various facets including gender, race, education, disability, and age.
Forms of Wage Discrimination in America
The most significant type of wage discrimination in America is racial and gender. Over the years, they have decreased in some cases but remain. Gender wage discrimination refers to the gap between what men and women are paid. The affected gender here is the women. According to Scott (2008), women across all races and ethnicities get lesser hourly earnings than men. For example, regarding gender, in 1990, the female to male earnings ratio was 71.6 percent. This indicated that for every dollar earned by a regular male worker, a similar female worker earned only about 0.72 c. By 2015, the ratio had increased to 79.6 showing that the gap is decreasing but at a very slow rate. Regarding race, Whites and Asians earned the highest median weekly earnings as compared to Hispanic or Latinos. In 2015, an Asian male wage worker earned 1,129 U.S. dollars. In the same year, Hispanic or Latino female wage worker earned a median weekly wage of 566 U.S dollars per week, this is the lowest among the races which included Whites, Asians, Hispanics and Blacks (Statista, 2018). This discrimination varied from one state to the other based on the primary industries in the states, demographics, attitudes, and beliefs about work and gender as well as their law enforcement capacities. Racial discrimination also features in wage. In America, the most affected races include Blacks and Hispanics. In comparison to Whites and Asians, they receive lesser hourly earnings. Educational wage discrimination also exists whereby those with higher levels of education are paid higher in consideration that they are better qualified than the lesser learned.
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Kessler-Harris (2015) explains that people with a disability also face wage discrimination in the workplace. A 2017 report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) indicated that there is a 13.6% disability pay gap to the effect that non-disabled workers earn more than the disabled ones. The disabled people also face greater chances for unemployment and get fewer responsibilities at the workplace. Since the U.S. economy crashed in 2007 many workers were affected by unemployment, and the rate has risen since. Employers are finding it more viable to employ younger workers and pay them less because older workers are more expensive to employ, may lack new skills and also retire when the employer has not yet recovered the training and hiring costs.
Intervention for wage Discrimination in America
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has laws in place to combat cases of wage discrimination at the workplace. They include Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) that guards against racial, color, religious, national origin as well as sex discrimination, The Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) , The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967(ADEA), Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), Sections 102 and 103 of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) (Scott, 2008) .
According to Haussman (2009), a person may file a complaint with the EEOC. The agency takes cases of discrimination seriously. Their effectiveness will largely depend on the information provided by the complainant which will determine the strength of the case. The complainant needs to present a prima facie case for discrimination. The EEOC will then assign an investigator to gather relevant information for informed decisions. At this point, the effectiveness of the case may also depend on the aggressiveness of the investigator and the persistence of the complainant. A social worker can play a significant role in reducing wage discrimination in society. He/she may do this by educating the affected population including women, disabled people, and racially discriminated people among others regarding their rights as workers. They can facilitate these people to access formal education which will liberate them by enhancing their capacity to challenge the discriminatory practices.
Conclusion
Wage discrimination is a real problem in America, existing at workplaces. It remains a debatable issue as the corporate world does not openly disclose the compensation information regarding its workers. This gap exists in different categories as workers may be paid differently according to their races, gender, disability, age or the level of education. The affected population thus includes women, people with disability, older people and the less educated. To reduce this problem, the EEOC has put in place various laws that may provide victims with the legal ground to put forth their complaints. The effectiveness of these legislations depends on the strength of the case, aggressiveness of the investigator and the persistence of the complainant. The social worker can play a relevant role in combating wage discrimination by educating the affected population.
References
Hausmann, R., Tyson, L. D. A., Zahidi, S., & World Economic Forum. (2009). The global
gender gap report 2009 (6 th ed.). World Economic Forum.
Higgins, M. (n.d.). The Gender Wage Gap (6 th ed.). New York: ABDO Digital.
Kessler-Harris, A. (2015). A woman's wage: Historical meanings and social consequences (6 th
ed.). University Press of Kentucky.
Scott, G.A. (2008). Equal Employment Opportunity Comm: Sharing Promising Practices and
Fully Implementing Strategic Human Capital Planning Can Improve Management of Growing Workload (6 th ed.). DIANE Publishing.
Statista. (2018). Wage Inequality in the United States-Statistics & Facts . Retrieved from:
https://www.statista.com/topics/3453/wage-inequality-in-the-united-states/
