By: Reya Syed
Over time, women's participation in the workforce has greatly increased. Not only has the percentage of women employed increased, but also their status positions and working hours; however, it is harder for them to gain jobs and recognition compared to men. Even after the increased difficulty of attaining a job, women are not being treated as equals, and gender pay gaps persist to this day. Gender pay gap is the average difference in salary between men and women and it happens in EVERY occupation.
According to the 2018 Census, women earn 82 cents for every dollar a man makes, which is approximately a 20% decrease. While a majority of women do not get paid the same as men, the problem mainly targets women of color. Studies show that Hispanic women make an average 55% of the average white male. Following close after, American Indian women make 57%, African American women make 62%, white women make 79%, and, finally, Asian women make 90% of the average white male.
The gender wage gap has a few different causes, which include (1) the difference in experience, (2) hours worked, and (3) discrimination. Women are expected to take part in unpaid obligations, such as staying home with their children, which leaves them with less time to gain work experience. As a result, women are more likely to work part-time instead of full-time, and that means lower wages and less benefits. While there is a law against gender pay discrimination, bigotry is still present worldwide. Although it is not always explicit, sometimes discrimination is just based on the company’s history. In the past, if the company underpaid women, the new manager would still rely on their old pay history for women.
Due to the pandemic, lots of people became unemployed, especially women. While children were transitioned to remote learning for school, women had to quit their jobs in order to take care of them. During the pandemic, only 55% of women were working. The number has not been this low since 1987, and it is only exacerbating the gender pay gap. As we are trying to attain a new normal, we are hoping for this percentage to start increasing.
The gender wage gap has been nearly impossible to change. In the last decade, there has only been a change in four-cents. There has been a study predicting for pay gaps to cease by 2059, but that is not for another 38 years; however, there are a couple ways to decrease pay gaps. For example, we could increase pay transparency. If people are more open to sharing their salary in the workplace, it could decrease the documented pay gap by a maximum of 30%. We could also create more unions, where they often advocate for paid leaves, equal pay, and fairer schedules. These are a few of the many examples, but there are so many more options that need to be implemented in order to successfully decrease the gender pay gap as much as possible.
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