Essay Sample on Gender-based Wage Inequality

Advocating for equal pay for both male and female sounds so reasonable, but it is hard to imagine that in 2017 we are still talking about gender pay gap in the US (Cutillo & Centra, 2017). Moreover, in the country, there is no country where the women as expected to earn the same as the men. Primarily, the gender pay gap has been identified as a result of discrimination that is in existence. In many companies, the women are noted to earn significantly less in comparison to the men. Some of the identified reasons why men are pointed out to make higher than the female is the willingness of the men to gain extra skills. Willing to take extra shifts, do more lucrative subjects, women not willing to work extra hard for their positions, women take unnecessary breaks and are women are okay to settle for less.

Women are noted to study less lucrative subjects while the men are known to Endeavour into the hardcore subjects. Therefore, in light of this, the women are forced to settle for lower-paying professions. A justification made by many women when surveyed a primary reason they decide for less lucrative subjects which translated to them starting their careers at the bottom rugs and having to climb the career ladder is as a result of family (Stritch & Villadsen, 2016). Many of the low paying professions are noted to have shorter working hours and greater flexibility. Therefore, their paycheck is forced to suffer as they prefer to spend time with the society. Furthermore, over the years the organization has trained the women to take the family as the priority and work second. The notion of the family making precedence gives the women the freedom to settle for less.

In scenarios where the women are noted to be working in same careers as them, there is still an income gap. As discussed earlier the women are blamed for selecting less lucrative subjects in school. However, in cases where the women settle for the technical career, there is still some income gap identified. Therefore, does it mean the women are less committed in comparison to the men in these fields? No, in many of these technical areas, many of the employers have stereotyped the different careers. Example position of an electrical engineer the employer may feel will better be handled by the male employee in comparison to the female employee. Thus, the male employee is given a higher pay. In the technical field, to encourage the young women to venture into, there is need to ensure the employers stop discriminating against the female employees. Moreover, research has noted as the women move to male-dominated fields the pay is indicated to go down by approximately 10%, this is a reverse when the males venture into female-dominated fields (Stritch & Villadsen, 2016). Example before the 1970s computer science was a female-dominated profession, however, in the 1980s the man started venturing into the area and with no time it was an already male-dominated field before the end of 2000s. Interestingly, the pays in the computer field have gone significantly high as a result of the male venturing into a female-dominated field.

Inequality access to opportunities has resulted in the broader income gap between the sexes. Often the male has higher access to excellent education centers, better health services, and finances to ensure they reach pinnacle of their careers. The American dreams when it was initiated in the 1980s, both men and women were expected to perform their ultimate best to ensure they provide for their families the much-needed success (Poddar & Chaudhuri, 2016). However, it is noted the men were offered better opportunities to achieve their goal as they had a higher income in comparison to the women at the time. Moreover, as earlier noted, the women are more likely to work in the informal sector in which they are only expected to earn an average income without much more expectations. Thus, this further widens the gender earning gap and exacerbates income inequality. Indeed when there are no equal opportunities presented to both male and female in the working sector, the presented greater wage gap has a direct impact on the income inequality as demonstrated by many women being unable to live the American dream. The high-income disparity illustrates higher differences in the labor forces participation rates between the male and females.

Wealth Accumulation is a function of inheritances and transfer of wealth from families, savings, earnings and investment strategies that are done by earlier families and then translated to the next generation (Cavalcanti & Tavares, 2016). In many societies, the males are tasked with wealth accumulation. Often the male is given the wealth as they are trusted to carry it form to the next generation. Evidently, the man is the head of the family and is expected to make important decisions, but when they are given the whole family treasures and wealth and the female not extended any contribution, this means there is discrimination. In family wealth, it is critical for the wealth to be distributed equally, but with the notion of the man being responsible for making most of the decisions in the family this leaves the women in the family feeling left out and may not be optimized to work for the family business again.

A recent study conducted on the managers when they were questioned why they prefer to employ many men as opposed to ladies they highlighted, women are not willing to work extra hard and have a tendency to ask for more breaks than they are entitled (Newman, 2016). Further, the manager when questioned why the ladies took the off days they noted many women do so as they want to take care of their families. Therefore, in the event the women are willing to take-offs from their careers to take care of their family is a loss to the company. On the other hand, very few men take off days to attend to their private affairs instead they are willing to make sacrifices to ensure the expected work is delivered. Therefore, the managers noted, they would then alternatively employ the men who are consistent at their workstation as they bring in more cash as opposed to the ladies who often have to put aside their careers for their families.

A study conducted indicated women tend to settle for less as opposed to the men (Stritch & Villadsen, 2016). Often after employment, the women tend to stop furthering their careers and instead decide on the already existing positions. On the contrary, the men in the company do not cease to advance their careers. Men are continually seeking new skills to ensure they are indispensable in the business. Therefore, many managers are willing to settle for the male employees who have additional skills and are eager to learn while doing their current jobs without the much-being push to undertake the extra courses. Therefore, for the women to be considered equal to men at the workstation there is a need for them to reconsider and be willing to put in extra effort and time to earn additional skills for their work.

In summary, in the US a mighty nation is expected to be different from other countries for it to end the gender income pay gap. However, the USA is affected by the gender inequality income gap. Some of the primary reasons for the women being paid less as discussed in the paper include; many women are not willing to work extra hard and acquire skills for their immediate positions; many women are blamed by the managers to settle for less as opposed to their male counterpart. Women have a tendency to take many breaks which costs the employers a lot of money, my inheritors gift the male in the society to take care of the family property, unequal access to opportunities and women deciding to take less lucrative subjects than the male who engages in technical careers.

References

Cavalcanti, T., & Tavares, J. (2016). The Output Cost of Gender Discrimination: A Modelbased Macroeconomics Estimate. The Economic Journal, 126(590), 109-134.

Cutillo, A., & Centra, M. (2017). Gender-Based Occupational Choices and Family Responsibilities: The Gender wage gap in Italy. Feminist Economics, 1-31.

Newman, B. J. (2016). Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Local GenderBased Earnings Inequality and Women's Belief in the American Dream. American Journal of Political Science, 60(4), 1006-1025.

Poddar, S., & Chaudhuri, S. (2016). Economic reforms and gender-based wage inequality in the presence of factor market distortions. Journal of Quantitative Economics, 14(2), 301-321.

Stritch, J. M., & Villadsen, A. R. (2016, January). Gender based wage inequality in the public and private sector: The moderating effect of education. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2016, No. 1, p. 14244). Academy of Management.