Bitter Truth About Gender Wage Gap

Most of the truths are meant to be bitter. This article highlights one of it. Men are still paid more than women for doing the same job.   Spending equal hours for the same job and coming up with the same quality of output has in practice no positive correlation with the earning if gender isn’t the same. When there is a difference between earnings of men and women for the same job, it is regarded as gender pay gap or gender wage gap.

The concept of Gender Wage Gap isn’t new; it was highlighted almost a decade back. In 2006, World Economic Forum published the first Global Gender Gap Report. The report covered 144 major and emerging economies. The Global Gender Gap Index is an index intended to calculate gender equality.

The straightforward cause for the gender pay gap is job performed by women is still valued less. As women start moving into conventionally male-dominated designations, the pay starts falling.

According to a research, “A 10% increase in proportion female is associated with 0.5% to 5% percent decrease in hourly wage in each decade.”

Normally, a wage gap is expressed as a percentage. Few statistics of the past year, 2016:

Source of Statistics: World Economic Forum 

Nowadays, the proportion of working women is increasing significantly; however, with the same intensity, gender wage gap isn’t reducing.

Gender pay gap 'may take 118 years to close' - World Economic Forum

Factors that contribute to gender wage gap:  

Generic Perception across the Globe 

In most of the societies, there is a genuine belief that women themselves tend to accept lower paid jobs. And hence, gender wage gap exists. However, the fact is, it’s not their preference, it’s their commitment, obligation and substitution. 

 “Women aren’t choosing to make less, instead, they’re buying the flexibility to handle responsibilities outside of work”, Goldin - , Professor at Harvard 

Traditional Mind-set of Employers

Lot many employers, across the globe, are bounded by traditional mind-set that motherhood will divert women’s attention so they need not be paid as much as men. Well, this is a debatable topic and the fact cannot be ignored that mothers are more attached to kids as compared to fathers. However, many researches strongly emphasizes that women are penalized for being mothers whereas men are not penalized for being fathers. Of course, a changing era has already begun here. Nowadays, lot many men are investing their time in domestic work and childcare, but the question is what is the ratio of that sort of men? 

“Discrimination, the careers women choose, and the burdens of motherhood could all play a role” Cornell economist 

Not all jobs are under comfort zone of women 

Trends prove that women employees often opt for jobs that are meant to be “under comfort zone”. It implies that they are not very open to riskier and challenging profiles. The rewards are positively interlinked with the risks. The higher the risks, the higher the returns. On the other hand, it is also seen that they have started entering into male dominated work zones. But the thing here is when women do enter into male-dominated jobs, at times they experience aggressive work environments and consequently find little or no support for their presence there. 

Lack of strengthened Legal Structure                

The Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act are imperative laws; however, hardly they have been enforced. It is always difficult to prove the matter and win such sort of legal cases since enforcement of the laws is complaint driven. Furthermore, the Equal Pay Act does not allow women to file class-action lawsuits, and it provides very frail damages. 

Closing Thoughts: 

Based on the latest research, if things are going the way they are, we will be able to see equal wage pay, regardless of gender, by 2133. However, growing awareness of women empowerment is anticipated to play a significant role in closing this gap earlier than the prediction. 

Happy Women’s Day!! – Equality for women is progress for all…