Gender Wage Gap- Fix Lies in Equal Responsibilities at Home

Few days ago, I was reading an article on American Association of University Women, and I stumbled upon the story of Maxine Lampe. She was denied equal pay with her peer, not because she was less qualified but because her husband is a professor and according to the pay fixation committee member she doesn’t need more money. The whole discourse shifts from the issue of equal pay for equal wage to women’s income being considered secondary or an add on to the husband’s. This reminded me of the various incidences and stories which I came across in my life, where my female colleagues, or friends had to go through some biasness in terms of wage gap.

What is a Gender Wage Gap

We have been reading a lot about gender wage gap lately, and to put it in simple terms we can say that “Gender pay or wage gap is the difference between women’s and men’s earnings, expressed as a percentage of men’s earnings”? India’s wage gap exceeds the global average. According to Korn Ferry Hay Group, women in India earn 18.8 percent less than men, which is more than one percent higher than the global average of 17.6 percent.[i].

Today, women around the globe are facing wage gap, according to ‘Global Gender Gap study’ by world economic forum, it will take almost 170 year to bridge. What surprised me is that while the education gap is being narrowed, the pay gap is increasing. A study conducted by ILO states that, only 47% of women in US are managers, this when United states ranks 43 as per the UN gender Inequality Index, imagine the situation in India which ranks 143. Women remain vastly unrepresented in most sphere, and those who represent, face discrepancy against their counterparts when it comes to wage. Many women due to their social conditioning think that it is alright to get paid less. Most times people justify it (sometimes discreetly and sometimes blatantly) with the benefits in form paid maternity leaves. I have seen many cases when women are inquired (directly in in some case indirectly) regarding their plan of starting a family. What they ignore is the economic value of services they have given to the society as a gender.

What are the probable causes of the gender wage gap?

Experts mentions that there are vicious combinations of biases against women, policies that may not be conducive to their work-life balance and women’s sense of self-doubt. Most of the time women (years of conditioning and underassessment of value they add) are less likely to ask for promotions and raises, than compared to men. Sometimes women turndown greater responsibilities because of the unequal distribution of work on home front. A colleague of mine was just not accepting promotion because that would demand a lot of travel and transfer at every certain interval of time. Studies have also shown that women who ask for more money are demanding, and men who do are strong. While women who delegate work firmly are labelled as “Bossy”, men at the same time are called “Leader”.

Why achieve gender equality?

While there are many economic and political responses to the article, I wold answer this with a question “Why not?”. And it simply comes down to that, why not pay equal wage for equal work? The underlying factor being “equal work.”

Road Ahead

Decreasing gender pay gap seems extremely tough and this will require behavioural change in men and women both. This would require men to accept distribution of equal work at home and not put the onus of responsibility on women for work outside the professional front as their responsibility. While a regulatory framework (wage difference between men and women at each level of an organisation not varying more than a particular percent) can be seen as a strong catalyst, without a supporting behavioural change to create a level playing ground by sharing the responsibilities at home, this will only cause elevation due to regulation and end up creating resentment among employees.

[i] (https://yourstory.com/2016/05/gender-pay-gap-india-report/)