Gender wage gap refers to the difference between the average wage for men and for women in an institution or within an economy as a whole. The lack of gender wage equality is now accepted as a huge injustice. Factors that can lead to gender pay gap include unconscious bias, a bigger quantity of men being in high administrative positions and a higher amount of females working only part-time. It is, however, important to note that the women and men in an organization can be receiving equal pays for equal work and the gender pay gap would still exist.
At the current rate of change, The World Economic Forum in 2017 estimated that it would take approximately 217 years to curb the gender wage gap in the workplace. However, given the occurrences of 2017 to 2018, research by Equileap believes that if the momentum is constant, the gender pay equality can be realized sooner. Also, only 4.5% of companies report having no pay gap (Dr. Siapkidou. E, Marko, P., & Keogh, S., 2018). Research regarding the gender pay gap is an indication that the issue still exists in the economy. Remarks by people in higher rankings and calls to curb the issue are also clear indicators of the still existing gender wage gap in the US. It is clear that the gender pay gap exists because still, many top positions in organizations are held by men. The percentage of women in Chief executive positions was at 16.3% from 2015 to 2016. The number of women in top positions is growing but at a very slow rate. This highly contributes to the huge pay gap between genders which was at 22% as of 2017. Also, many males dominated professions tend to be paid more than those of women dominated professions.
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It is clear that some companies prefer to employ men to women because of the notion that women always have something else to do, such as, take care of children, their family, cooking, household stuff et cetera. Also, the belief that women are not flexible to work in shifts contributes to more men being hired for most positions. Women are even sometimes considered less talented than men and thus everyone would prefer hiring men to women. Hillary Clinton stated that the gender pay gap is seen to be higher for women of color compared to that of white women.
The Economic Status of Women in Texas and The Economic Status of Women in Collin, Dallas, and Denton Counties and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research conducted a research which showed that female makes $0.79 per $1 paralleled with males in the same profession. As per the American Association of University Women’s Spring 2018, white women earn $0.79 per $1 a white man earns. When likened to white men, Asian women earn $0.80, women of color earn$0.63, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islander Women earn $0.59, American Indian and Alaska Native women earn $0.57 and Hispanic or Latina women earn $0.54. This shows that the gender pay gap is not merely influenced by the sex but also influenced by the ethnicity.
While the components that cause gender pay gap are vast, the gender pay gap is an actual issue that needs to be engaged completely so as to be amended. The issue of the gender pay gap is across all ages, education, races, and ethnicities in practically all professions. Studies demonstrate that 62% of the pay gap is due to general elements like educational qualifications, career, parental status, conjugal status and period away from the working environment. Whatsoever, the other 38% of the gap is unaccounted for and is likely to be the consequence of imbued social separation or certain predisposition. The existence of the gender pay gap even today is a sad truth but the issue has been brought to light and improvements are expected. However, most people are negative on the issue and may bring women to doubt if they stand an opportunity to achieve a zero gender pay gap.
References
Dr Siapkidou. E, Marko, P., & Keogh, S., (2018) Bridging the gap. How governments, companies and investors can tackle gender pay inequality. Equileap.
Kevin Miller (2018): The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap Report, American Association
of University Women’s Spring
The Economic Status of Women in Texas and The Economic Status of Women in Collin, Dallas report (2018)
World Economic Forum (2017) The Global Gender Gap Report 2017
