DESPARITY BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN'S PAY

Desparity Between Men and Women's Pay

Desparity Between Men and Women's Pay

Introduction

This paper presents and discusses the issue of disparity between men and women, regarding the pay-scale offered to them. It is no secret that jobs vary widely with respect to the pay, benefits, security of employment, and intrinsic rewards they offer. What is less well-known is that many of these disparities have been growing in recent decades, reversing a trend toward equalization that dates back to the Great Depression. This paper describes inequality in wage income and other characteristics of labor-market careers, with particular attention to trends in the United States during the last three decades of the twentieth century (Ames, 2005).

Women, on average, make less than men, a differential commonly known as the wage gap. Although significant changes in the status of women in society occurred since the phenomenon was identified, the gap still persists in the 21st century.

Discussion

Some scholars point to differences in human capital as an explanation of the wage gap. Although women significantly increased their education and employment experience in recent decades, even for college-educated women, the gap remains although it too has improved. In 1979, female college graduates earned about 67 cents for every dollar a male earned; that figure is now approximately 81 cents. For those with only a high school education, the figures respectively are about 60 cents and 74 cents. Ironically, female high school graduates gained more relative to men than female college graduates, so increased education appears not to reduce the gap (Blau, 2006). Some analysts suggest that much of the decrease in the wage gap is due to the decreasing real wages of men, especially high school-educated men. Well-paid jobs for male high school graduates in manufacturing are disappearing.

In 1963, the federal Equal Pay Act became law, forbidding employers to pay different wages to men and to women doing the same job. However, by and large, men and women did not then, and do not today, do the same job. High levels of occupational sex segregation persist. Women still work largely with other women doing “women's work,” whether professional-level work or unskilled labor (Charles, 2008). Men still work largely with other men. Even where there has been significant gender integration, ghettoization often occurs within the occupation. For example, female physicians are more likely to be pediatricians than surgeons, and pediatricians make less (Ehrenberg, 2007).

Women's work pays less, regardless of who is doing the work. Men doing women's work, although paid less than men doing “men's work,” are paid more, on average, than women in the same occupation. This lower pay exists even when holding constant the skills, responsibilities, and adverse working conditions that the job requires. Considerable research exists showing that comparable jobs pay less if they are dominated by women workers (Eyraud, 2008).

What accounts for occupational sex segregation? Women learn what work is appropriate for them, partly by observing what women do in the world. So, existing segregation feeds segregated expectations and occupational ...