What Is Gender Pay Gap

Does thorn in the flesh hurt? Yes! Does gender pay gap hurt? Gender pay gap is an economic thorn in the flesh of the women that possess the characteristics of discrimination and injustice. Gender pay gap is one of the most significant social issues around the world and a highly debated one as-well. Women have come a long way since World War Two, when they first voiced about the right to work and to be part of the labour market in order to gain self- determination. Gender pay gap is a societal issue that not only women have to find solutions for it to end but the government also needs to make reforms on policies to push through the change by law and power. In this essay the social issue of gender pay gap will be further defined and discussed

Gender pay gap is “the difference between women’s and men’s earnings” (Ministry for Women, 2017, para. 1). Workplace Gender Equality Agency (2017) also stated that, “gender pay gap is the difference between women’s and men’s earnings expressed as a percentage of men’s earning’s” (para. 1). On the other hand, European Commission (2017) defines gender pay gap as “the relative difference in the average gross hourly earnings of women and men within the economy as a whole” (para. 1). As shown above, all three of these organisations define the gender pay gap similarly by stating that there is a difference between the pay what men get as opposed to what women get. StatsNZ on September 1st, 2017 stated that gender pay gap was at 9.4 percent with contributing factors such as different occupation, education and experience levels that men and women hold (Ministry for Women,

Gender pay gap are divided into two components, explained and unexplained components. The pay gap has reduced 16.3 percent since 1998 which has come to a halt since the last decade. Occupational and industrial segregation (where women are overrepresented in a female dominated occupation) and educational factors (studying for women friendly occupations such as food and beverage services, childcare and old age care jobs) are known to be the contributing factors in the differences between the male and female wage gap. The gap is estimated to be 20 percent of the explained contributing factors and 80 percent of the unexplained contributors as “these are the harder to measure factors, like conscious and unconscious bias – impacting negatively on women’s recruitment and pay advancement – and differences in men’s and women’s choices and behaviours” (Ministry for Women, 2017). These factors lead to glass ceiling effect which works as an invisible barrier that disadvantages women in rising to attain the position if authority in workplaces and organisations in New Zealand and in countries around the world (Nugent,