United States women's wages and the wage gap as compared to their male counterpart - Essay Example

?United s women's wages and the wage gap as compared to their male counterpart Introduction The term ‘equality’ seems to be deterring from women even in the 21st century. The period when women are taking giant strides towards successful career and achieving global heights, the demon of equal pay rights and equality at workplace still haunts. Federal government confirmed the earning gap persistent between men and women despite various laws and amendments made by the government (Longley, ‘Why Women Still Make Less than Men’). Despite some dramatic reductions in the male-female pay gap since the 1950’s gender differentials persist in all industrialized nations (Blau and Kahn, 533). Both gender specific factors like gender differences in qualifications and discrimination, and overall wage structure, the rewards for skills and employment in particular sectors, importantly influence the gender pay gap. The large gender pay gap in the United States compared to other advanced countries seems primarily attributable to the very high level of U.S. wage inequality (Blau and Kahn). According to Goldin, the ratio of female to male earnings among full time workers was roughly constant from the 1950s to the early 1980s and the segregation of occupation of sex is substantial and has declined only slightly across the last century (Burstein, 17). According to the American Women, a report prepared by Commission on the Status of Women; the role for women ‘most generally approved by counselors, parents and friends is the making of a home, the rearing of children and the transmission of them in their earliest years of the values of the American heritage. It should be noted that during that period only 10 percent of families were headed by unmarried women and most of the women’s job were in ‘low paid categories’ such as clerical work which is still existent even today as shown in Table 1. However the time is changing rapidly as Shiver reported that in 2009, half of the U.S. workers are female and mothers have become the primary breadwinners in 4 out of 10 families (A Women’s Nation). However the fact remains that there is large gap in wages between men and women as the gap had widened during 2007 and 2008 as women’s weekly earning on an average was $657 as compared to $819 for men (It’s time for working women to earn equal pay’). Basing on the facts and figures mentioned above, this paper attempts to present analytical discussion on United States’ women wages and wage gap differences as compared to men at workplace. 2. U.S. Women Employment and Wages Figart, Mutari and Power (3) stated that women have been always working which was essential in providing food, clothing and shelter throughout history and across cultures. It took decades before the women first occupied place among the men. Today, women represent nearly half of the U.S. workforce wherein the United States total workforce consisted of 72% men and 58% women in 2010. The labor force participation for women increased from about 33 percent in 1950 to 61 percent in 1999 but has remained less active and spent fewer weeks in the labor force as compared to men (US Dept. of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, 28). According to report ‘Worlds Women 2010’, 90% of the women’s workforce was employed in service sector while only 9% in industry sector and 1% in agricultural sector. The data (Table 1) reveals that there is demand of women in service sector as only 68% men are employed within the sector. Table 1: Distribution of Employment in Developed Countries Source: World’s Women 2010, United Nations (COR) The domination of women in service sector was the result of increasing representation of women among the ranks of managers in organizations in the U.S. which was considered as a dramatic shift in the sex composition of an occupation since clerical work became a female dominated field in the late nineteenth century (Jacobs, 282). It is evident from the above data that women are equally contributing to nations GDP as compared to men but still there is a huge wage gap despite numerous laws to equate women with men at workplace. According to the White House Report on “Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well – Being”, women in U.S. are gaining ground educationally as well as economically, but still there is large pay gap between men and women (Miller, ‘Despite Strides by US Women, Wage Gap Remains’). Longley (‘Why Women Still Make Less than Men’) presents the facts from General Accountability Office Report GAO – 04-35 which states that the weekly earnings of full time working women were about three-fourth of men’s during 2001 and further reports that women earn an average of 80 cents for every dollar as compared to their male counterpart. According to facts and figures available from National Organization for Women, women’s median annual paychecks reflected only 78 cents for every one dollar earned by men in 2007 whereas the gap widens with African American with 69 cents and Latinas at 59 cents (‘Women Deserve Equal Pay’). Another study reported that women earn an average of 77 cents and job discrimination is widespread even though the reports and various studies suggest that situation for women have improved during the last century (Shiver, 2009). Figure 1 –Median Usual Earnings of Full Time Wage and Salary Workers in Constant $ by Sex Source: Reeves, M. Women in Business, 2010 Wage discrimination among U.S. Women emerged sometime between 1890 and 1940 in the white collar sector of the economy. However the earnings gap between women and men has narrowed gradually wherein women’s weekly earnings among full time wage and salary workers have increased from 62 percent in 1979 to 80 percent in 2009 as compared to men (US Dept. of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration 28, Reeves, 78)). According to Reeves (79) women earn less than men in many areas from service related jobs to management and professional occupations. It is further mentioned that gap widens in professions which involves higher pay and in professions or jobs which are stereotyped as ‘male’ or masculine in nature. The federal government had taken several measures and enacted equal pay laws in order to narrow down the wage gap between men and women so as to provide them with equal opportunity for growth in respective occupation and profession. 3. Governments Laws, Polices for Equal Pay The U.S government enacted several laws and provisions to prevent its citizens from any kind of discrimination. During 1965, President Kennedy passed Executive Order 11246 that prohibited discrimination in federal employment and the order was later amended in 1968 by Executive Order 11375 wherein sex discrimination was also included providing women legal support to fight wage discrimination. Further yet another Executive Order 11478 was passed stating that the policy of U.S. government is to “provide equal opportunity in federal employment for all persons, to prohibit discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin--- (Pynes). The government during 1964 initiated the law to protect the people from discrimination and enacted Civil Rights Act, a landmark statute outlawing race discrimination. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act applied specifically to the employment prohibiting the employers from discriminating against any individual because of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Equal Pay Act of 1963 was enacted especially to protect women from low wage while performing the work on par with their male counterparts. As Equal Pay Act of 1963 aims to provide equal wage to female on one hand, it also sets forth specific circumstances wherein the employer may not be liable for wage differentials in regard to seniority system, merit system and a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production or difference in pay based on any other factor other than sex (Hogler, 184). Equal Pay Act of 1963 seeks to eliminate sex based wage discrimination whereas Civil Rights Act of 1964 includes a provision prohibiting discrimination against females at workplace in similar profession. This has raised several controversies regarding the right of females for equal wage as compared to their male counterpart in similar profession. This being one of the reasons for wage gap in United States between men and women, there are many other factors widening the gap. A number of lawsuits have been initiated by women who assert that Title VII of 1964 Civil Rights Act makes discrimination in compensation for employment illegal, jobs for comparable worth are required to be compensated equally and that failure to meet this requirement constitutes discrimination (National Research Council, 2). However President Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act in 2009 allowing the victims of pay discrimination to complain with the government against their employer within 180 days of their last paycheck. Though the women has made excellent progress in the workforce since the enactment of Equal Pay Act in 1963, the actual goal of the act has not yet been achieved (Brunner, ‘The Wage Gap: A Histoyr of Pay Inequity and the Equal Pay Act’). 4. Why Wage Gap still exists? One of the most salient features of women’s status in the labor market was their tendency to work in a fairly small number of relatively low paying, predominantly female jobs , especially concentrating on administrative support service occupations which is still dominated by women as shown in Table 1. According to Blau and Kahn (6) women tend to accumulate less labor market experience than men due the traditional division of labor by gender in the family. Women have lower incentives to invest in market oriented formal education and on the job training because of the discontinuous work lives. According to Becker’s model (Blau and Kahn, 7) discrimination is due to the discriminatory tastes of employers, co-workers or customers. Statistical discrimination model evaluates the differences in the treatment of men and women that arise from average differences between the two groups in the expected value of productivity while discriminatory exclusion of women from male job can result in an excess supply of labor in female occupations depressing the wage margin as in ‘overcrowding model’ Human capital model suggests that men and women possess different level of labor market skills and to be occupied in different occupations and in different industries (Blau and Kahn, 8). Further women have to shoulder family responsibilities because of which they spend less time at workplace. Miller (Despite Stride by US Women, Wage Gap Remains) mentioned that employed married women aged between 25 to 54 years spent less time at workplace during 2009, as compared to married men of same age group. According to Newman, occupation segregation is another cause for wage gap between men and women. In a study, it was found that women in female dominated jobs earn the lowest wages as compared to men in male dominated jobs. Some economists and policy makers argue that the wage gap is essentially an institutional byproduct that exists because men on the whole have more work experience and training, work more number of hours, and more likely to work full time schedule than women. The wage gap is persistent even in the factors like experience, age and education. The average income of female workers in the United States is significantly lower than that of men with the same level of educational attainment. Men with bachelor’s degree earn 60 percent more than women with bachelor’s degree (197). Weaker judicial system and absence of stringent laws permitting equal pay for women are other factors for the existing wage gap between men and women. Gibelman (4) showed his angst on the U.S judicial system for its inability to reduce workplace discrimination. The decision laid down by the Supreme Court in Reed Vs Reed in 1971 is a shocking reference wherein the statutes of Title VII was hinged stating that preference be given to men when people of both sexes are equally qualified to administer estates. The barriers at the implementation level continue to slow down the progress of women towards equality in the workplace which include continued sex role stereotyping, and role socialization, inadequate enforcement mechanisms, etc. Despite strong laws and acts, the goal to achieve total equality remains a dream even after 21st century in a country like United States whom the world looks upon for innovative polices. 5. Measures to reduce the wage gap United States government is trying to reduce the wage gap through various policies and enactment but according to Shriver, women should be given extra benefits and facilities at workplace to continue their work without any break ups. Shriver states that the main challenge will be to append the outdated assumptions about what constitutes important work. The report suggests five specific amendments to improve the women participation at the workplace by providing them unemployment, retirement and other benefits even on part time work on similar lines of full time work, allowing them to work in flexible hours, providing health insurance; allotting paid and medical leave, providing facilities for child care at workplace and to stop taxing women’s income unfairly and disproportionately. It is necessary to provide women with more opportunities to shoulder with men at the workplace in terms of equal pay and cadre (Kornbluh and Homer, 29). Conclusion Women’s economic empowerment and wage gaps are part of a larger issue that most of the organizations and governments have failed to address so far (Prokopeak, ‘Women, Wages and Work life balance’). Though the women has progressed over the years in terms of employment figures accommodating almost half of the US workforce, reduced the wage gap and achieved managerial positions in companies, the wage disparity still continues to haunt the women. In spite of various laws present to govern the discrimination based on sex, the wage gap has not been evaded and various studies suggest amendment to the existing laws facilitating women with more flexible working conditions and benefits. Gender discrimination is one such area which needs stringent law and polices so that inequality does not persist in any form or structure. Works Cited ‘It’s Time for Working Women to Earn Equal Pay’, America’s Union Movement, Aflcio.org. 8 April 2011. Web Blau, Francine D and Kahn, Lawrence M. 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Women, Wages and Work-Life Balance, HR Issues and Practice, 13 Jan 2011 Harvinderjit.multiply.com 8 April 2011. Web Pynes, John E. Human Resources Management for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Strategic Approach, 3rd Ed., John Wiley and Son, US:2008, Print Reeves, Martha E, ‘Women in Business: Theory, Case Studies and Legal Challenges’ Taylor and Francis, US: 2010. Print Shriver, Maria The Shriver Report: A Woman ‘s Nation Changes Everything, Simon and Schuster, United States: 2009 Print U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic and Statistics Administration. Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well Being, White House Council on Women and Girls, United States: 2011. Print United Nations (COR). World’s Women 2010: The Trends and Statistics. Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations Publications, US. 2010. Print. Read More