Analysis: The Gender Pay Gap

Gender equality: the pinnacle concept that American society is not-so desperately trying to achieve. Many Americans have convinced themselves that gender equality was remedied by the Nineteenth Amendment and the Second Feminist Movement, and have not considered the thousands of steps that are left on the journey. In recent years, a matter of public interest has been the gender wage gap, stating that women are earning significantly less money than men for doing an equivalent amount of work. Critics of the effort to “break the glass ceiling” claim that a pay gap does not exist, and that if it does, it is because women either do not work as hard, have to tend to their families, or hold lower paying jobs. However, the gender pay gap has been proven to exist in a variety of different forms,

It may be 2018, but the gender pay gap is still here, why is that? Women have been and still are getting a lower pay than men to do the same job. Women are doing equal if not more work, but somehow make less. The following paragraphs will explain what is happening today like the fact that over time men 's pay increases more than women 's does. Besides that I will also mention that not just white women make less than men other cultures make even less than them, and I also will share real people speaking up about them being paid less than men. Although I strongly believe that gender equality matters, I will mention the few things I found against my claim as well. Just to make it clear the gender pay gap needs to come to an end so women can get their equal pay.

The most popularly cited statistic when it comes to the gender wage gap states that women earn only 82 cents for every dollar that is earned by men (Glynn). Basically, what that means is if you average out what all women, working full time, year round, earn and compare that number to what all men working full time, year round, earn, researchers have found that women end up taking home 82 percent of what men do. According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2012, 57.7% of the corporate workforce was made up of women. If over half of working citizens are women, then why aren’t they getting the same respect in the work environment as men? This controversial topic is affecting women in many more ways than one.

“The income of female workers across the world will lag behind men’s for another 70 years if the gender pay gap continues to reduce at the present painfully slow rate”. (Topping, 2015)

There are currently a number of various social inequalities that face our society today. Most of today 's issues have to deal with racial inequality. One issue we have faced in our nation for several decades is gender inequality, more specifically the gender pay gap. In an article released by American Enterprise Institute (AEI), There really is no “gender wage gap.’ There’s a ‘gender earnings gap’ but ‘paying women well’ won’t close that gap, by Mark Perry argues why the gender pay gap doesn’t matter. In another article by CQ Researcher, Women and Work, written by Michelle Johnson disagrees with Perry and that women need to be paid the same as men. While discussing the argument over the gender pay wage gap, Johnson and Perry have used rhetorical

Women have endeavored for equality between genders. Generations of women have participated in movements since the 1800s. A good deal of laws prohibit discrimination between genders and punish those who do not abide. The majority of the citizens of the United States advocate equality and the law that supports equality. Even though there is a law that prohibits discrimination and inequality, there are businesses that discriminate against women with wage disparity. Women are paid only eighty percent of what men are paid despite the fact that both genders have the same full-time jobs. To attain true equality between genders, the government of the United States should pass a new law that requires constant inspection on wage disparity in all businesses.

Many women today desire meaningful careers without feeling the competition of society in the workplace. When a female holds a high position at her place of employment people often assume she got the job because of looks or who she knew, not because of hard work and a degree. Since women entered the workforce they have been paid less than a man for doing the same job. The term equal pay for equal work is still just a term and not a standard. When looking at earnings and job distribution, a person would wonder if women are in some way not as accomplished or competent as men. Women are paid less than men are, even when they have the same education, skills, and experience as a man. In the year 2000 women were paid 73 cents for every dollar a men

. In the article published by Nicole Parcheta, the gender gap in pay has narrowed since 1980, particularly among younger workers, but it still persists. In 2015, women earned 83% of what men earned as far as median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time U.S. worker. Based on this estimate, it would take an extra 44 days of work for women to earn what men did in 2015. For adults ages 25 to 34, the 2015 wage gap is smaller. Women in this group earned 90 cents for every dollar a man in the same age group earned.

There is an income inequality that exists in the Unites States, women earn on average 80% what the average male makes. In 2016, the median earning of males was $51, 640 while women made $41, 554 (Semega, 2017). Education also plays a role in the gender pay gap and even though women may be receiving the same degree as a man they continue to be paid less. The pay gap associated with education is illustrated by Larkin, "On average, a male with a bachelor's degree will earn $25,000 more than a female with a similar degree. Women with a master's degree earn $32,500 less than men possessing a similar degree" (2015, para. 58).

The year the Equal Pay Act was passed into law (1963) the wage gap between a man and women working full time was 41 cents with women making 59 cents for every dollar a man earned. Since then, the income disparity has decreased by almost 50 percent. In 2014, the wage gap was 21 cents with women making 79 cents for every dollar a man earned (The Wage Gap Over Time). This 20 cent decrease in the wage gap since 1963 shows how significant of a difference the Equal Pay Act and its enforcement through Corning Glass Works v Brennan, along with other court cases, have been. The current 21 cent wage gap today shows that the issue of unequal pay based on sex still exists, and that more needs to be done to close this gap.

The Wage Gap. There is a very big problem about payment, not just in the United States, but also all around the world. What is the problem with the wage gap? For every dollar a man makes women make about 70 cents to 80 cents, for the exact same job. Why?

Each and every year women are being ripped-o ff of millions of dollars due to the Wage Gap. As a result families and businesses suffer. In this paper I will explain why the Wage gap exist between the sexes, how the Wage Gap affects women, and ways that can be used to close the Gap. There are a number of reasons why the Wage Gap exists between men and women.

This astonishing reality proves my thesis in that while women are able to be hired for the same job as men because they are women they get paid less. As mentioned earlier, this gap isn’t spread evenly throughout all occupations, also it is not spread evenly throughout the

Nationally, women make 79% of what men make (Hill, 2015). That means for every dollar that a man gets paid, a woman with the same qualifications will only receive 79 cents. You may think that it is only 11 cents, but think about it in a yearly salary way. If a man were to get paid $150,000 per year, a woman would only get paid $118,500. That is a $31,500 difference in pay just because of their gender, which is something that they can not change.

To think about the quote by Judith Lorber and my own life, gender is a socially constructed “being” of masculine or feminine. It does not refer to the genitals or certain biological markers. It is a set of feeling, thinking, and acting to be a man or woman. It is about the personal conception on how an individual sense the one fits into masculine or feminine characteristics. It is also about the social expectations for the state of being male or female. The mutual shaping of individual and society has a certain pressure on how we are supposed to act and produce outcomes associated with masculinity and femininity. This subjective view was perceived and reinforced across cultures, society and time. Thus, the attached meaning of this term changes