The Gender Pay Gap

The 87th annual Academy Awards this past Sunday night was dedicated to recognizing and honoring the stellar work of people working in film; however, the Oscars was not only a big night for the movie industry. It was a huge night for women all over the nation. If you simply google “Oscars”, I can guarantee you that one of the top articles that pops up will be about Patricia Arquette’s acceptance speech, which will forever go down, in my opinion, as one the most galvanizing, yet controversial speeches in Oscar history.

When accepting the prestigious Best Supporting Actress award for her role in the movie Boyhood, Patricia choose to shine a spotlight on the growing, unresolved issue of inequality towards women. In particular, the gender pay gap and wage inequality.

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The issue of the gender pay gap has been a fairly touchy and sensitive topic for years and has triggered mixed thoughts amongst many. Most of us have probably heard the general statement that men are paid more than women are paid over their entire lifetimes, but what does that really mean? Are women paid less because they choose lower-paying jobs? Is it because more women work part time than men do or because women tend to be the primary caregivers for their children? Or is it simply an issue of gender discrimination? The answer is, it is a combination of all of the above.

There are women who choose to work part-time or take on lower-paying jobs, and are thus paid less than men who have higher-paying jobs and/or work full-time, which is logical and seems fair. However, over the years it has been found that women are making less money than men despite doing equal work with equal experience for the exact same job. That is when the problem of gender inequality comes into play. The Equal Pay Act was established in 1963 to abolish gender wage disparity, yet 50 years have passed and women are still earning less for working just as hard.

Personally, it boggles and perturbs me that our country is still backwards in our ways of thinking, and gender discrimination has failed to completely cease. Obviously, it would be inaccurate to state that all women are faced with the problem of unequal pay; however, the harsh reality is that there is evidence of a wage disparity between men and women, and statistics show that most women make less money as they get older, when compared to men.

When looking at the numbers, the pay gap has barely budged in a decade. Amongst full-time, year round workers as of 2013, women were paid only an average of 78% of what men were paid according to the Census Bureau. So in other words, for every dollar a man makes, a woman earns just 78 cents for doing the same job.

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To put the issue of the current gender pay gap in perspective and address the growing divide in wage equality, here are the concrete facts and statistics, which are disconcerting to say the least. Women in every state experience the pay gap, but some states are worse than others. Women are paid 91% of what men are paid in Washington D.C, but in Louisiana, the worst state in the country for pay equity, women are paid just 66% of what men are paid. Just 66%!  Furthermore, according to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the pay gap does not apply to one occupation. Women unfortunately face the pay gap in nearly every occupation, whether they are female-dominated, gender-balanced or male-dominated. Whether it’s a job in computer programming, teaching, law, or arts and entertainment, women are paid less than men regardless. As Patricia mentioned in her acceptance speech, it is true that the pay gap widens and grows with age. Reports by the AAUW state that until about 35, women typically earn about 90% of what men are paid, but as they get older, the average earnings for women typically drop down to approximately 75-80% of what men are paid.

As sad as it is to say, the gender pay gap makes me feel like our nation has traveled back in time and is taking giant leaps backwards instead of pushing forward. If this wage disparity continues to grow and this gap expands, what will the future look like?

3 Comments on The Gender Pay Gap

  1. Eric Hodge
    February 26, 2015 at 5:32 pm (9 years ago)

    I find this to be a very interesting topic of discussion. I wrote about a similar subject in one of my previous Civic issue blogs, looking at the distribution of women leaders in the workplace. It is interesting to note that in the US, 43% of bosses are women, but in Jamaica, 60% of bosses are women. The explanation for this difference is the culture in each country. In Jamaica, men generally dont have as much of a competitive drive in the business environment as women. It really makes me wonder (of course I’m not trying to be offensive) if there is a cultural reason besides discrimination to explain the pay gap, similar to the leadership gap in Jamaica.

  2. Melanie Marie Ramirez
    February 26, 2015 at 5:31 pm (9 years ago)

    This is a topic that really sadness yet angers me. As a women I think this is a very unjust and inconsiderate element of our society. In fact, this reminds of one of the topics that Adiche touched in her novel “Americanah”, which was and still is relevant today: There is inequality among the pay gap between men and women, but there is even a bigger gap among women of different ethnicities. Why is it that we, women, are labeled among society? What difference does it make to be Hispanic, African American, White, Male or Female when it comes to writing a firms statistical report? It really angers me that people are always saying how much humanity is advancing and how we are in the year 2015 or the “new millennium” when we are still facing some of the same problems we were facing in the 1800’s.

  3. Kyle Trabocco
    February 26, 2015 at 5:23 pm (9 years ago)

    As a math major I find it very sad that people still look at the gender wage gap using poor mathematical technique. Anyone with a good sense of numbers can clearly see through the facade that is most of the wage gap. The reason being is that the math being used is simply a median of womens earnings to mens earnings. Nothing about that model is sound. The number of confounding variables is so immense that under no circumstances does that provide an accurate measure of how much women make according to men. Over the course of a year, it is true that women make 77% less than men. That does not however, mean that women are being paid 77% less than men. This does not take into account so many factors such as the type of job, hours worked, tenure, education level, job description, rank. People need to stop confusing the fact that women earn less than men with women are paid less then men. Riddle me this. If the wage gap was true and companies could get away with paying women 77% less, why is it that woman have not overrun the job market with their lower wages? The answer is that there is a lack of conclusive evidence that for the same job, hours worked, education level, job position and company that a woman is paid less than a man.

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