Md. Islam.

Professor: Shamecca Harris

18^th November 2018

Inquiry-based essay

THE GENDER PAY GAP – Possible solutions

This paper would explore more in-depth research of how women facing gender discrimination in the workplace in terms of the gender pay gap and talk about two possible solutions that may be able to shrink the gender pay gap in the United States. The subsequent feature will focus on the two possible ways to solve the gender pay gap in the workplace: Raising the Minimum Wage, and the paycheck fairness act.

 

Abstract

This paper focuses on the persistence of the gender pay gap in the United States and some suggestions that may help to shrink the gender pay gap. It will attempt to answer the question, “How can the issue of female experiencing wage gap be solved in the United States by raising the minimum wage and passing the Paycheck Fairness Act”. A brief overview of the various reasons for this issue followed up by a closer look at the two possible solutions that may help to solve this issue. First, it will take a look at raising the minimum wage, and then focus on passing the paycheck fairness act and analyze how these actions may help to solve the gender pay gap. Also, followed up by a summary of the paper and generalized idea on the topic of the gender pay gap.

Introduction:

The gender pay gap is the difference between the earning of average men and women throughout the United States. This is one of the major ways that women still face gender discrimination in their workplace.

The article “’Women’s work’ and the gender pay gap” published by the Economic Policy Institute in July 2016 provides current information about the gender pay gap in the United States. Assumptions about the reasons for the difference in the gender pay gap are shown through the data shown in this article. Therefore, a closer look should be taken at some of the possible reasons for gender discrimination in the workplace.

According to EPI, women earn 79 cents for every dollar earned by men- excluding the fact that more than millions of women have joined the workforce over the years and more women are educated now than ever before. According to one of the charts provided in this report which is titled “Women earn less than men at every education level”. The data shows the average hourly wage gap as of to 2015 of both men and women. It has shown that men on average have a higher income than women even with the same degree/ level of education. For example, with a college degree, an average man makes about $35.23 hour. Whereas, females make about $26.51 per hour. This is about $10 difference in the payment of individuals with the same level of education. Another data on EPI shows one possible reason for the reason behind the gender pay gap in the United States. The article suggests that this difference occurs because of the difference of the career path or study of interest that most women tend to choose to compare to men. In this data titled, “Women arrive at college less interested in a STEM field as compared with their male counterparts” as of to 2014. For example, it has been shown that about 18% of the male chooses their major as engineering in their first year of college, whereas, only 6% of women choose to engineer as their major. Engineering job is high paid job and based on this data we can infer that since more men go into engineering, there are more male engineers. These are some of the aspects that make the difference in the gender pay gap.

 

Raising the Minimum Wage:

In the article, “7 actions that could shrink the gender wage gap” the author Sarah Jane, Milia Fisher, and Emily Baxter discusses the issues of the gender pay gap and gives possible solutions to overcome this issue. It listed the 1st solution that could possibly solve the issue of the gender wage gap in the United States as raising the federal minimum wage in the United States. As stated in the article, “women make up a disproportionate share of low wage workers, and estimates show that differences between women and men’s occupations could account for nearly one half of the gender wage gap.” This shows that more women work for minimum wage than men do and raising the minimum wage would really help to close the gender pay gap. Also, the current federal minimum wage is only $7.25, and earning this much money hourly is below the poverty level of about $15,080. The article also discusses how raising the minimum wage maybe to $10 an hour could help about 15 million females that work for minimum wage and tremendously help to close the gender pay gap.

 

Similarly, the article, “Want to shrink the wage gap? Raise the Minimum wage” by the national women’s Law center written in 2012, input a diagram in which it provides an understanding of how state wage gap correlates to the gender pay gap in that state. There provided two data, one with top ten states with the smallest wage gaps, and another with the bottom one-third states with the largest wage in the United States. Based on the data, we see that the states that made it to the list of smallest wage gap state have a higher minimum wage than the states that have the higher wage gap. For example, in the District of Columbia, women’s earning to men’s earnings ratio is 91.4% which had a minimum wage of $8.25 as of 2012. In comparison to a state Wyoming having only 63.8% of women’s earning to men’s earnings ratio with a minimum wage of $7.25. Through a comparison of the district of Columbia and Wyoming, we see that the minimum wage difference is only $1, which made a big difference in the wage gap in between these two states. Even though there may be other factors that may have affected the gender wage gap but through these two data’s, we can infer that there is definitely a relationship between minimum wage and the gender pay gap. Higher minimum wage correlates to the lower wage gap.

According to a study “How the United States can learn from Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic success in the gender pay gap legislations”, the author Lily Hall does a great job into explaining how countries such as Norway, Sweden, and Iceland is very different from the United States which makes them better than the United States when it comes to gender pay legislation. According to WEF, America, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland are categorized as the high-income countries and most advanced compared to other countries in the world. These countries also “invest in women’s health and education” (Lily 633). Even among all the similarities that these countries have with the United States, some of the things that makes these countries (Norway, Sweden, and Iceland) better than the United States is that they are ranked top globally when it comes to gender equality. These countries offer the worker the transparency and accountability, and this enables the workers’ equal pay claim when necessary and allow the employers to formulate plans to adjust the pay gap. These employers take a different approach including the raising the minimum wage or making other adjustments in terms of paychecks. If the only United States were this flexible toward the workers or raise the federal minimum wage, there is a chance that the United States could be like one of those countries and never have to worry about gender inequality in the workplace.

 Paycheck Fairness Act:

The article “The Paycheck Fairness Act” written by the national partnership for women and families in March of 2017 discusses how passing the paycheck fairness act would be great for the United States. The paycheck fairness of act could be used as a perfected version of the Equal Pay Act of 1963. “The Equal Pay act of 1963 made it illegal for employers to pay unusual wages to men and women who perform substantially equal work” (national partnership 2017). This has tremendously helped women’s in the United States and started to change the level of inequality in the workplace. But this law wasn’t perfect as there still exist the gender pay gap even after 1963 to as of now (2018).

The article suggests that passage of the paycheck fairness act would change all of that and work as a finisher of the Equal pay act. It would do what the Equal Pay Act was not able to do (close the gender pay gap) by breaking a harmful pattern of pay discrimination and strengthen workplace protection for women. Paycheck Fairness act was sponsored by US senator Patty Murray and US Representative Rosa DeLauro with in mind to close the gender pay gap. As inferred in the article, “at the current rate, the wage gap will not close until 2059” (national partnership 2017). 2059 is a very long time and women and the nation cannot afford to wait till 2059. The simple solution to this issue as suggested is passing the paycheck fairness act which will “protect against retaliation for discussing salaries with colleagues” and remove obstacles in the Equal pay act” national partnership 2017). This would help to strengthen the Equal pay act of 1963 and bring changes to the society.

I am deeply disappointed that a minority of senators have prevented the “Paycheck Fairness Act” from finally being brought up for a debate and receiving a vote. This bill passed in the House of almost 2 years ago; today it had 58 votes to move forward, the support of the majority of the Senate, and the support of the majority if the Americans. As we emerge from one of the worst recessions in history, this bill would ensure that American women and their families aren’t bringing home smaller paychecks because of discrimination.

                                                                                                -Barack H. Obama, 2010

This statement above gives an idea of how much the paycheck fairness act is relevant and need of the United States. The bill of paycheck fairness act was originally defeated in the Senate in 2008 and was reintroduced again in 2009, this time passing the House of Reps by 250 to 177 but was defeated in 2010 in the Senate in 2010. Many of the supporters of the Paycheck Fairness act have tried it again in 2012 but were unable to pass it. Just because the bill of paycheck fairness act was defeated in the Senate several times, does not make this a bad bill. There were many supporters to this bill and still are. It takes a long time for a bill to be passed as a law but the supporters vow not to give up as they believe this would help to bring changes to the gender pay gap. As Senator Mikulski said once, “I want everyone to know, everyone in the Senate and everyone in the United States of America, although we lost the vote, we refuse to lose the battle” (congressional digest 2014).  Once or if this bill is passed in the future, it is believed to make changes to the Gender equality in the workplace and in gender discrimination.

How is this going to affect the society:

Throughout this paper two major cause of gender pay gap in the labor market have been identified: on the one hand the minimum wage issue, this differs from state to state in the US, but raising the federal minimum wage; on the other hand passing the paycheck fairness act, which might help to complete what was meant to be done by the equal pay act of 1963, which is to protect equal paycheck. It is very hard to generalize these two factors to improve the gender equality as there are other factors as well other than raising the minimum wage and passing the paycheck fairness act that may decrease the gender pay gap as well. However, these two factors can help a lot to achieve that goal. Through raising the minimum wage and passing the gender pay gap, we can expect to see economic growth. There would be less poverty in the United States, because women make two-thirds of the minimum wage workers in the US, and minimum wage workers on average make less than the poverty level. They also make up about 70% of the restaurant workers, who even make a lower minimum wage. Many that work for minimum wage tends to seek for government aid, by raising the minimum wage, there would be less needed to provide aid to those people, which in return would only help the government and the economy. This also may influence family and children because it can increase the family income and as a result, that family would be able to support their children more educationally and their needs. Especially for the single mom that works for minimum wage who cannot provide enough for their children and themselves. Having some extra money would really make a difference in their life and can be able to provide a better education for their children. (Think process 2013).

 

Conclusion:

It is important to notice that raising the minimum wage and passing the gender pay gap is not the only possible reasons that gender pay gap occur, but these affect the gender pay gap more. The federal minimum wage needs to be increased in addition to passing the paycheck fairness act to get rid of the gender pay gap. There are numerous ways that gender pay gap affect society and do not only affect only women. It can increase the economy, and beneficial for families as well. Also, shrinking the gender pay does not affect any other factors (not harmful), and it does not harm the male either, it only helps everyone and their family. The United States falls behind in terms of gender equality compared to other countries such as Sweden, and Iceland. It is to be understood that big changes such as erasing gender pay gap do not happen over a short period of time. In the US, and worldwide, achieving gender equality, and eliminating the gender pay gap is further away, but with effort, that goal can be achieved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited:

“Want to Shrink the Wage Gap? Raise the Minimum Wage.” NWLC, 30 Nov. -1, nwlc.org/blog/want-shrink-wage-gap-raise-minimum-wage/.

Glynn, Sarah Jane, et al. “7 Actions That Could Shrink the Gender Wage Gap.” Center for American Progress, www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2014/09/18/97421/7-actions-that-could-shrink-the-gender-wage-gap/.

“‘Women’s Work’ and the Gender Pay Gap: How Discrimination, Societal Norms, and Other Forces Affect Women’s Occupational Choices-and Their Pay.” Economic Policy Institute,

“‘Women’s Work’ and the Gender Pay Gap: How Discrimination, Societal Norms, and Other    Forces Affect Women’s Occupational Choices-and Their Pay.” Economic Policy Institute, www.epi.org/publication/womens-work-and-the-gender-pay-gap-how-discrimination-societal-norms-and-other-forces-affect-womens-occupational-choices-and-their-pay/.

“How Raising The Minimum Wage Would Help Close The Gender Wage Gap.” ThinkProgress, ThinkProgress, thinkprogress.org/how-raising-the-minimum-wage-would-help-close-the-gender-wage-gap-6bcb95cc2e30/.

“The Paycheck Fairness Act.” National Partnership for Women and Families, www.nationalpartnership.org/research-library/workplace-fairness/fair-pay/the-paycheck-fairness-act.pdf.

Web-a-Ebscohost-Com.ccny-proxy1.Libr.ccny.cuny.edu, web-a-ebscohost-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=30&sid=78c1d572-4940-41b6-aa12-848180f768d9%40sessionmgr4006.

Obama, Barack H. “Statement on Senate Action on Paycheck Fairness Legislation.” Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents, Nov. 2010, p. 1. EBSCOhost, ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=55545532&site=ehost-live.

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“Legislative Background on Pay Equity.” Congressional Digest, vol. 93, no. 5, May 2014, p. 12. EBSCOhost, ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=95883187&site=ehost-live.

 

Hall, Lily. “Unbinding Working Women in a ‘Bindersfull-Of-Women’ Nation: How the United States Can Learn from Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic Successes in Gender Pay Gap Legislation.” Cardozo Journal of International & Comparative Law, vol. 22, no. 3, Spring 2014, pp. 627–663. EBSCOhost, ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=100966335&site=ehost-live.