For this week’s civic issues blog, I’d like to take a look at the issues surrounding women’s pay inequality, or what is more commonly known as the wage gap.
According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, in 2018 women who worked full-time jobs only made $0.82 for every dollar that a man earned. In addition to this, over a span of 15 years, women earned only half of what men earned for working the same jobs. According to Business Insider, women’s annual earnings are $9,766 less than men’s.
There has also been data showing that women’s annual salary doesn’t change once they have children, but when men have children, they actually receive an increase in salary. Men with children had a median weekly salary of about $1,098 and men without children had a median weekly salary of about $919. Women with children had a median weekly salary of about $799 and women without children had a weekly median salary of $784 (Business Insider). The typical argument that will always be brought up here is that “women with children aren’t working and they’re with their children so no wonder they aren’t earning as much money”, but the thing is that these statistics were taken from mothers that were working a full-time job while also taking care of their kids when they weren’t working. Why should fathers be rewarded while mothers earn less, especially since oftentimes they’re the ones more likely to be exhausted but still trying their hardest to put int the same amount of effort that they were before having children?
This isn’t just the commonly heard argument that “women choose lower-paying jobs so what can you expect”, this trend was seen in every occupation where men and women’s wages were compared. Women earned, on average less than men. This is also reflected in what are considered “middle-skill occupations”, such as IT, distribution, and manufacturing jobs. Women only earn on average $0.66 for every dollar a man makes, which can be explained because many middle-skill workplaces show a level of discrimination when it comes to “pay, hiring, or promotions” (Institute for Women’s Policy Research). According to the Institute of Women’s Policy Research, women will not receive equal pay until the year 2059 at best.
This discrimination doesn’t just stop at gender however, it also extends to the race of the woman as well. According to Business Insider, Hispanic women make 58% of what a white man makes, Black women make 66% and Asian women make 97%. If it will take until the year 2059 for white women to receive equal pay, just wait until you hear the projected years that women of color will have to wait to receive equal pay. Hispanic women may have to wait until the year 2224 to receive equal pay and black women may have to wait until the year 2130.
The main question that is still ruminating in my brain is “why is this still a problem?”. There is really a simple answer to this but it’s also quite depressing when you think about it. It’s still incredibly difficult for many jobs to integrate women into certain jobs that are still considered typically “male-dominated fields”, such as anything that consists of primarily manual labor. When you’re asked to picture a plumber or a construction worker, what is the first image that comes to your mind? Is it a woman doing the job or is it a man all smiling like we were all used to seeing as kids? I’m guessing it was probably the latter. The same goes for many STEM careers. Many STEM jobs are male-dominated and women are scared to talk about their areas of expertise for the risk of not being taken seriously simply for the fact that they are a woman and that clearly makes them automatically less educated and capable than men. As I mentioned before, a lot of this comes from when we were children, presented with picture books of public figures that were almost always men, so it was ingrained in our minds that it was only men that could do certain jobs.
We as a society have become more integrated but it’s certainly not perfect, as indicated by the fact that there is still obvious prejudice against women in many fields of work. This segregation and prejudice within the workplace are what has contributed to the significant lack of progress in the shrinking of the wage gap.
Sources Cited
Hegewisch, Ariane, et al. “Pay Equity & Discrimination.” Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 11 Sept. 2019, iwpr.org/issue/employment-education-economic-change/pay-equity-discrimination/.
Sonam Sheth, Shayanne Gal. “7 Charts That Show the Glaring Gap between Men’s and Women’s Salaries in the US.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 31 Mar. 2020, www.businessinsider.com/gender-wage-pay-gap-charts-2017-3#womens-earnings-are-lower-than-mens-over-the-course-of-a-lifetime-6.