Gender Pay Gap Research Paper

According to the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) the gender pay gap also known as gender wage gap is the difference between male and female earnings expressed as a percentage of male earnings. In the United States and Europe, the gender pay gap has not changed in the past decade with the average woman's earnings approximately 78% of those of an average man. The studies by Dickens and Katz (1986) Wages are closely linked to labor productivity. Rise in productivity acts as the deciding factor for the expansion of capacity and the adoption of improved technology. The implementation of advanced technology necessitates recruitment of skilled workers and impart of training to the existing workers. However, experienced and skilled workers are available at relatively higher wages in competitive labor markets.

In The United states and Europe, on average, a woman who holds a fulltime, year-round job is paid $39,621 per year while a man who holds a full-time, year-round job is paid $50,383 per year.

While the relative qualifications of American women are high compared to women in other countries and the U.S. has had a longer and often stronger commitment to antidiscrimination laws than most industrialized nations, the U, S. has traditionally been among the countries with the largest gender gaps. The results based on comparisons of the U.S. to nine other industrialized nations (Blau and Kahn 1995 and Blau and Kahn 1996) suggests that the resolution of this paradox the lower ranking of U.S. lies in the enormous importance of overall wage structure in explaining women. That is, the gender gap in the U, S. is relatively high, not because of the traditional gender-specific factors but rather due to the relatively large penalty that the U.S. wage structure imposes on groups that have below average skills (measured and unmeasured) or are located in less favored