The UK-Based Perspective for an Evolving Context - Essay Example

Research Paper “Recent trends and ongoing issues in the gender inequality wage gap: an UK based perspective for an evolving context” Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 Introduction: 4 Gender employment issues 4 Male female disparity: major evidences 5 Wage inequality: reasons for disparity 6 English Legal Aspects 9 Deviations from the Law 10 The HR function implementation of the law 12 Good practices 13 Conclusions 13 Recommendations 14 REFERENCES 14 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY An UK based analysis of employment levels and wage differential between male and female workers has been conducted, and a comprehensive study of recent major evidences in this field has been carried out in this sense. This work shed light on the major factors that have led to wage disparities and discriminations during the last decades on the basis of gender differences, and found that elements such as work-family balance, race, contractual technicalities and culture have played a major role in shaping a pronounced difference in wages between males and females workers, an d have demonstrated a positive correlation with the presence of gender based wage differentials. A comprehensive analysis of the existing body of law within the United Kingdom workers has also made possible to understand what have been the major efforts that have been carried out on a regulatory basis, so that wage differentials from one side, and discriminatory behaviors on the other side, have been limited and penalized on an extensive basis. The HR departments of major corporations can cope with this issue and can limit gender based wage differentials by enacting internal policies able to optimize the wage contractual agreements, to improve women integration and responsibilities within the corporate layers and to address corporate changes and the compliance with the existing body of law. The gender based wage differential has been found to be always present, but decreasing, so that there is consistent evidence in support of the fact that the recent regulatory changes and improvements within the UK have caused a less pronounced differential in wage treatment between male and female workers. Introduction: The recent ongoing competitive challenges within the economic and managerial system in more advanced economies, such as the UK one, have increased the need of an accurate and deeper understanding of the role of women within the economic field, and on the other side of the way in which the existing body of law applied to the recent wage inequality issues. The cited regulatory efforts have been in this sense synthetized, and the last academic debates and evidences in this field have been also presented, paralleling to the major and primary factors that are widely believed to play a relevant role in this sense. Gender employment issues From evidences on a legal and academic perspectives, in light of recent surveys and analyses in this field, this study sheds light on a major issue in this sense, and investigates the main factors that are believed to play a primary role in the recent survival of a gender wage disparity within the UK borders on a wide basis. These evidences at first sight confirm that this inequality survived to the major governmental and legal actions and regulations enacted during the last 40 years, and are a primary element that makes possible to infer how the achievement of a pure gender wage equality is not only needed, but also necessary in order to guarantee an equal and efficient functioning of an economy, from a sociological and economical point of view. In light of a comprehensive legal investigation of this phenomenon, this study performs also an accurate analysis of the recent best practices adopted on large scale, together with an implementation of the major characteristics of the HR strategy adopted by many corporations and institutions in this sense. Empirical evidences on the UK labour market support the main conclusions and highlight the effectiveness of the analysis as well. Male female disparity: major evidences Evidences from a legal and contemporary historical basis highlight how in many industries and institutions, from the bottom to the executive hierarchical level, statistics show that quantitatively speaking, female workers are being discriminated on an economic basis1. Disparities exist also on an educational basis, since skilled workers, that retain and obtained scientific degrees, have proven to be widely discriminated according to their gender, with female workers that lag behind2. Gender gap in wages is found to be high for unskilled workers, of around 21 to 24 percent, and on the other side evidence has been found for the belief that the same gap is decreasing for skilled workers3. From a historical point of view this inequality has been always justified by taking into account the recent intrinsic differences in the employment levels of males workers when compared to females ones and considering also the fact that previously, during the last decades, unemployment levels has been relatively higher for females rather than for males, due mainly to historical and cultural aspects that have hindered women’s potential4. Wage inequality: reasons for disparity A first area of interest in which there is much more consensus on the reasons of this disparity can be found on an educational perspective: wage premium related to the attendance of a college by male and female individuals is clear and statistically significant5, and in this sense the premium for male workers is found to be higher for male workers rather than for female ones6. These numbers indicate an important, sizable contribution to wage differences from degree subject and roughly correspond to the results on field of major reported in Brown and Corcoran (1997). It’s therefore widely believed that any discussion and analysis concerning wage equality on an UK perspective has to consider and widely take into account a wider look at the educational choices that shape an individual and most of the times happen before the individual itself enters the labour market. Another important element in this perspective is highlighted in the work of Francine D. Blau, which explored the determinants of the gender pay gap, found interesting differences also on an international basis: In this sense, certain developed countries show a less pronounced gender pay gap, while differences for developing countries persist at very high levels7. The United Kingdom in these terms is found to be a pioneering country, where this inequality in wages, although being always present, is less pronounced and leads the world with the United States in promoting better conditions in this sense8. Another relevant area in which there is consensus on the presence and on the determinants of wage differentials is set by contract extension and wages architectures on a contractual basis, that set differences between male and female workers also on an inter firm basis. Although traditional gender pay differences persist, corporations with a more consistent international presence are found to be less related to high disparity on a wages based perspective. Wage inequality has been increasing in recent times on a quantitative level, this due to the fact that wages have been increasing nominally speaking. In this sense many issues and efforts show that disparities as percentage of total wage have been decreasing on the contrary. These differences have also been decreasing in light of the females ability to cope with more complex and more sophisticated tasks in this sense. These elements are suggested by the considerable differences in the occupations and industries in which they work, as well as the substantial pay differences that exist for men and women with the same measured characteristics9. A more pronounced study in this sense10 shows that sociological and economic based factors are on the basis of the female wage differential gap in the United Kingdom: recent speeches and analysis carried out on an academic perspective indicate that from one side the reasoning of many authors in this field complies with the belief that gender inequality has been a leitmotiv generated by cultural factors, according to which the society justified womens’ emancipation in light of their capacity to work on less skilled job positions and tasks11. On the other side, a comprehensive evaluation of women’s role in the UK post war society shows how among the main factors that explain the gender pay gap in this field, the ethnical belief that women can be entitled of a primary role in today’s society has also become a primary incentive for them to be recognized as resource for the nation itself, and as a major critical success factor for the economy in light of their capability to cope with a more tolerant environment12. Finally, the necessity to manage the work-family balance has undermined women’s potential within the United Kingdom, since women have been widely believed to retain the moral responsibility to undertake primarily home tasks: a belief that to certain extent has been nowadays widely surmounted13. Family responsibilities have been therefore managed by Government with an eye on the consequences for families and for working women, and in this perspective major efforts have been placed also to incentivize female workers also through tax credits and appropriate well designed contractual architectures14. English Legal Aspects A preliminary overview of the Body of law that is set to manage these forms of inequalities shows that many efforts have been carried out in this sense in order to make possible to cope with the wage inequality issue on an effective way during the last decades. Other results in this sense are provided by The Equal Pay act of 1970: it did not give the right to equal pay for equal value, but the right to equal pay where work was similar or believed to be equivalent in light of an evaluation system the implementation of the Equality Act of 2010: it makes it illegal for employers to restrict employees from having discussions about differences in pay related to protected characteristics that set an extensive and primary guideline, as also recognized by the TUC, the Trades Union Congress, in order to cope with this phenomenon. It’s however widely believed that any analysis in this sense has to be carried out on a case by case basis, so that the widely shared principles of good faith and reasonable care apply in the evaluation of the existence of discriminatory acts for female workers. It’s believed that the legal efforts carried out in the UK in order to minimize the gender pay inequalities have been to certain extent effective in meeting their purpose, due to the fact that these labor market inefficiencies are now lower than in the past, and the wage inequality can be on average of less than 20 percent in many industries15. Deviations from the Law Major efforts and legal innovations have been designed building on the existing cases in which the law hasn’t been respected in this sense: example can be studied according to the following elements: “Loyal servant” hypothesis: this hypothesis states that a major legal determinant of UK’s gender pay gap is dependent on the belief that if employer job search is costly, prospective new employers are less likely to make offers to women than to comparably qualified men16. “insurance” effect: Olson17 has analyzed if females workers, who are married and their health insurance is covered through the employers of their husband, tend to opt for jobs that don’t offer coverage of health insurance but pay more than jobs that provide coverage. Women, for cultural reasons, tend therefore to prefer to work in environments and under contractual agreements that provide health insurance assistance, and are therefore going to be paid less than their male colleagues, mainly due to this condition and this sort of risk adversity. Statistics show that the wage differential related to this issue can be of around 20 percentage points18. “pension and wages” effect: taking into account recent evidences from white married female workers between 25 and 64 years of age, a regression model from Even and Macpherson19 indicate that women earn rn 66% as much as men earn in the pension sector; human capital characteristics in this field are then not believed to play a primary role, but gender variable is found to be positive and significant as well20. “overtime work” variable: a Tobit analysis in this field explain how overtime worked, that explains wage differentials, is found to be positively correlated with gender, so that women, less oriented to working overtime for cultural and sociological reasons, are entitled of a wage differential also according to this element21. “race” effect: according to recent statistical evidences, a percentage of around 2 percent of wage differential is still believed to be related to race differences, a proportion that has been declining during recent times, and that is going to be overcome in the last decade, but that nowadays is still considered positive and significant, although on a secondary level22. “participation rate” effect: according to recent evidences, an increased participation rate for female workers during the last decades is found to be positively related to a decreased gender wage differential: this trend is positive and enduring, as data below show23: The HR function implementation of the law The role of HR departments in corporations is therefore pivotal in order to minimize gender wage inequality, and offer to women competitive contractual architectures in order to enter the labor market on an effective way. Trends in this sense explain also that corporations that are more present on an international dimension are also the ones that offer lower wages differential for female employees when compared to male ones: this makes possible to assume that any innovation in this field will be directed toward obtaining a more pronounced female contribution to the economic wealth of the corporations themselves, since a more direct involvement of female workers in this field is found to be beneficial and profitable as well24. An accurate HR design and implementation in this field is therefore able to increment the visibility of female issues, improve the management of those differences, and implement the architectural design of solutions in this sense on an extensive basis. On a contractual basis evidence has been found on the already high achievements obtained in this field within the UK borders by many firms and employers. Good practices Some of the major innovations and regulatory efforts in this field have placed much more attention on the ways in which disparity in professional treatment between male and female workers can be solved, and two major areas of interests in which the existing actions have been successful in meeting this equality based objective are: The contractual arena: with appropriate efforts to shape binding professional contracts in order to minimize disparity of treatments for female workers Race discriminations, that are nowadays in the UK quite completely minimized Skilled labor force: the difference in wages between male and female employees has proven to be lower for skilled resources rather than for unskilled ones. Conclusions Accurate and comprehensive forms of studies and surveys have been carried out in order to study and analyze the impact of RFID technology on many industries: aim of this study is to shed light on the warehouse and supply chain industry with a more detailed approach; A gender pay inequality is widely present in the UK labor market, mainly in light of the presence of certain factors, such as the health insurance, race, participation rate or work family balance effects. A comprehensive analysis of the effects of those characteristics on an extensive basis has been carried out; other relevant issues in this sense have been advanced on a legal perspective, in order for employers and HR divisions to disclose much more information concerning female wages, and to prevent employers to discriminate female workers repeatedly. Recommendations I am convinced that a standardized approach doesn’t exist in this field, and that many evaluations have to be carried out on a case by case basis. However, much more efforts have to be done on an extensive basis in order to make the legislation working again on a more capillary basis, so that the enforcement of the Equal Pay act is ensured on an extensive dimension and procedure. REFERENCES S.Machin, P.A.Puhani (2003).Subject of degree and the gender wage differential: evidencefrom the UK and Germany. Available at: ttp://www.gesis.org/fileadmin/upload/institut/wiss_arbeitsbereiche/gml/Veranstaltungen/3.NK_2003/Papers/text_Machin_Puhani.pdf Altonji, J.G., Blank, R.M., 1999. Race and gender in the labor market. In: Ashenfelter, O., Card, D. (Eds.). Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol. 3. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 3143–3259 Grogger, J., Eide, E., 1995. Changes in college skills and the rise in the college wage premium. Journal of Human Resources 30, 280–310. Blau, Francine D. and Kahn, Lawrence M. (1992b) "Race and Gender Pay Differentials," in D. Lewin, O. Mitchell, and P. Sherer (eds.) Research Frontiers in Industrial Relations and Human Resources, Madison, WI.: Industrial Relations Research Association Bernhardt, Annette, Morris, Martina and Handcock, Mark (forthcoming) " Womens Gains or Mens Losses? A Closer Look at the Shrinking Gender Gap in Earnings," American Journal of Sociology Blackaby, David, Alison L. Booth, and Jeff Frank. "Outside Offers And The Gender Pay Gap: Empirical Evidence From the UK Academic Labour Market*." The Economic Journal 115.501 (2005): F81-F107. Olson, C. (2002) Do workers accept lower wages in exchange for health benefits? Journal of Labor Economics, 20(2):91-114. Anderson, D. J., Binder, M., & Krause, K. (2003, January) The motherhood wage penalty revisited: Experience, heterogeneity, work effort, and work-schedule flexibility. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 56(2):273-294. Read More