Gender equality is achieved when people are able to access and enjoy the same rewards, resources and opportunities regardless of whether they are a woman or a man. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women who work full-time earned, on average, only 78 cents for every dollar man earned, which is a gender wage gap of 22%. (Institute for Women's Policy Research, 2010). The aim of gender equality in the workplace is to achieve broadly equal outcomes for both women and men. In order to achieve workplace equality among men and women it requires organizations to remove a few obstacles. First, workplaces should provide equal remuneration for women and men for work of equal or comparable value. Next, barriers need to be removed to ensure the full and equal participation of women in the workforce. Finally, for decades women have had to deal with the bias of “women belong at home with the children”. Discrimination on the basis of gender particularly in relation to family and caring responsibilities for both women and men needs to be eliminated for women to make a stride to lessen the wage gap.
As we already know, it is in an organization’s best interest to hire and promote a multicultural and diverse workforce. Sometimes though, people are still discriminated against in the workplace. As a result, a federal agency has been established to ensure employees are treated equally and have a place to file a complaint should they feel they have been discriminated against. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency charged with the task of enforcing federal employment discrimination laws (Dias, 2011). One downfall is that the EEOC only covers employers with at least fifteen or more employees. This agency covers not only discrimination in hiring but also discrimination in all types of work situations such as firing, promotions, harassment, training, wages, and benefits (Dias, 2011).
Many publications believe that there are a few contributing factor to why women earn less than men. The first being, women work fewer hours because of family care and maternity leave. Further, the work of caring for children, sick family, and elderly parents is assumed to be, and often is, "women’s work"(Institute for Women's Policy Research, 2010). This caregiving work, although essential to society, tends to be undervalued, and often is either unpaid, when women combine care for their own families with paid work, or underpaid, when they work in care-giving occupations. Workplace policies still fail to account for these obligations, and workers with child or elder care responsibilities often face sex discrimination and harassment, inhibiting their advancement in the workforce. Next, the career path of job choice of women tends to be slower as a whole. Mothers’ careers progress slowly because they are mothers, because they have to spend more time on their children. Mothers have greater childcare responsibilities than fathers. And while we may hope for a different division of labor someday, we speculate that these work/life realities explain why women who are mothers are on slower career tracks than men. Also, there is bias favoring men as the “breadwinners,” and therefore they are paid more. Women are almost half of the workforce. They are the equal, if not main, breadwinner in four out of ten families (Institute for Women's Policy Research, 2010). Yet on average they are still earning considerably less than their male counterparts. Women are valued less than men in the workplace. Women’s competences and skills are undervalued, so women frequently earn less than men for doing jobs of equal value. Finally, women don’t negotiate salaries as well as men do. In order for this to change, women need to learn strategies to better negotiate for fair pay. Improved negotiation skills can assist in closing the pay gap.
One issue that has been greatly debated is that of comparable worth. Comparable worth states that people should be given similar pay if they are performing the same type of job (Dias, 2011). Evidence over the years has shown that this is not true, women earn less than men in many industries. Equality in pay has improved in the United States over the years. In 1979 when women earned about 62 percent as much as men. In 2010, American women on average earned 81 percent of what their male counterparts earned. The Great Recession of 2007-2010 affected men and women differently. Men lost more jobs than women in the recession but also experienced a steadier recovery. One in five women are working part time because they cannot find full time work while at the start of the recession less than one in ten women were doing so (ILO 2014)
Women in every state experience the pay gap, but some states are worse than others. The best place in the United States for pay equity is Washington, D.C., where women were paid 91 percent of what men were paid in 2013. At the other end of the spectrum is Louisiana, the worst paid. ( AAUW 2014). The pay gap is worse for women of color. The gender pay gap affects all women, but for women of color the pay shortfall is worse. Asian American women’s salaries show the smallest gender pay gap, at 90 percent of white men’s earnings (AAUW 2014). Hispanic women’s salaries show the largest gap, at 54 percent of white men’s earnings (AAUW 2014). White men are used as a benchmark because they make up the largest demographic group in the labor force (AAUW 2014).
Although they pay gap still exists, women are persistently working to close the gap completely. This is being done because women are becoming better educated and more active in the workforce than they used to be. They receive more college and graduate degrees than men but are still earning less. Women are moving into occupations that were once dominated by males. Women have made tremendous strides during the last few decades by moving into jobs and occupations previously done almost exclusively by men, yet during the last decade there has been very little further progress in the gender integration of work. Many of the workplace barriers and discriminatory actions have eroded over time. There have been laws put in place to ensure equal pay and opportunity for both men and women.
As we already know, it is in an organization’s best interest to hire and promote a multicultural and diverse workforce. Sometimes though, people are still discriminated against in the workplace. As a result, a federal agency has been established to ensure employees are treated equally and have a place to file a complaint should they feel they have been discriminated against. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency charged with the task of enforcing federal employment discrimination laws (Dias, 2011). One downfall is that the EEOC only covers employers with at least fifteen or more employees. This agency covers not only discrimination in hiring but also discrimination in all types of work situations such as firing, promotions, harassment, training, wages, and benefits (Dias, 2011).
Many publications believe that there are a few contributing factor to why women earn less than men. The first being, women work fewer hours because of family care and maternity leave. Further, the work of caring for children, sick family, and elderly parents is assumed to be, and often is, "women’s work"(Institute for Women's Policy Research, 2010). This caregiving work, although essential to society, tends to be undervalued, and often is either unpaid, when women combine care for their own families with paid work, or underpaid, when they work in care-giving occupations. Workplace policies still fail to account for these obligations, and workers with child or elder care responsibilities often face sex discrimination and harassment, inhibiting their advancement in the workforce. Next, the career path of job choice of women tends to be slower as a whole. Mothers’ careers progress slowly because they are mothers, because they have to spend more time on their children. Mothers have greater childcare responsibilities than fathers. And while we may hope for a different division of labor someday, we speculate that these work/life realities explain why women who are mothers are on slower career tracks than men. Also, there is bias favoring men as the “breadwinners,” and therefore they are paid more. Women are almost half of the workforce. They are the equal, if not main, breadwinner in four out of ten families (Institute for Women's Policy Research, 2010). Yet on average they are still earning considerably less than their male counterparts. Women are valued less than men in the workplace. Women’s competences and skills are undervalued, so women frequently earn less than men for doing jobs of equal value. Finally, women don’t negotiate salaries as well as men do. In order for this to change, women need to learn strategies to better negotiate for fair pay. Improved negotiation skills can assist in closing the pay gap.
One issue that has been greatly debated is that of comparable worth. Comparable worth states that people should be given similar pay if they are performing the same type of job (Dias, 2011). Evidence over the years has shown that this is not true, women earn less than men in many industries. Equality in pay has improved in the United States over the years. In 1979 when women earned about 62 percent as much as men. In 2010, American women on average earned 81 percent of what their male counterparts earned. The Great Recession of 2007-2010 affected men and women differently. Men lost more jobs than women in the recession but also experienced a steadier recovery. One in five women are working part time because they cannot find full time work while at the start of the recession less than one in ten women were doing so (ILO 2014)
Women in every state experience the pay gap, but some states are worse than others. The best place in the United States for pay equity is Washington, D.C., where women were paid 91 percent of what men were paid in 2013. At the other end of the spectrum is Louisiana, the worst paid. ( AAUW 2014). The pay gap is worse for women of color. The gender pay gap affects all women, but for women of color the pay shortfall is worse. Asian American women’s salaries show the smallest gender pay gap, at 90 percent of white men’s earnings (AAUW 2014). Hispanic women’s salaries show the largest gap, at 54 percent of white men’s earnings (AAUW 2014). White men are used as a benchmark because they make up the largest demographic group in the labor force (AAUW 2014).
Although they pay gap still exists, women are persistently working to close the gap completely. This is being done because women are becoming better educated and more active in the workforce than they used to be. They receive more college and graduate degrees than men but are still earning less. Women are moving into occupations that were once dominated by males. Women have made tremendous strides during the last few decades by moving into jobs and occupations previously done almost exclusively by men, yet during the last decade there has been very little further progress in the gender integration of work. Many of the workplace barriers and discriminatory actions have eroded over time. There have been laws put in place to ensure equal pay and opportunity for both men and women.