Gender Gap come Payday
The 10 pm broadcasting of the CBS news, has a segment called, In The Know: Good Question, which focuses on an issue that relates to the general public. On February 9th, the In The Know question was: Why do men make more money than women? Ben Tracy was the reporter for this storyline. He gathered information from random people on the street, both men and women, and he also interviewed Pat Hedberg, a St. Thomas business professor. The main focus of the segment was discovering if men make more money than women is true. The answer is yes; there is a gender gap come payday. For every dollor that a man makes, a women only makes 0.77 cents. Unfortunately, this statistic may be misleading because this pay disparity represents what men and women make on average, not for the exact same job. However, for the most part, men do make more. The median pay for men is approximately $41,000, for women it is $10,000 less. Pat Hedberg listed off a few reasons to why women get smaller checks. For one, women tend to go in and out of the workforce more often than men. Men don't tend to have the juggling act of homemaker, mother, and career woman. Women also seek more flexible jobs, which in return doesn't result in the best pay. This pay difference is a bit discriminating. Women rarely get the opportunity of advancement to become CEO's or high executives within companies. It's unfortunate that men and women work in such gender segregated occupations. To close this gap of gender inequalities within the workforce, women are compensated with maternity leave, and should try to negotiate salaries more. This news clip stated that men are eight times more likely to challenge job offers. This segment really did not surprise me. Although, we are getting closer on closing the pay gap, we are not there yet, and therefore the question of why women get smaller pay checks still remains. If a woman can do a job just as well as a man, there should be no difference at all.
Comments
I think there is some competing logic here. There are indeed differences between men and women, and you do list a couple of them here. Namely, you note that women tend to transfer into and out of the workforce more often than men. This fact alone is costly for employers. The fact that this is a byproduct of multiple female roles is a different discussion entirely. You also note that women seek more flexible employment than do men. Again, this may be due to deeper rooted sexism in society, but job flexibility also comes at a cost. If women are eight times less likely to challenge job offers than males, there is no wonder why a pay difference exists.
What I'm trying to say is that women and men aren't identical. There are differences that possibly lead to a gap in statistics, in our case the gender gap come payday. If men and women are performing the same job at the same level of aptitude, their pay needs to be the same. Looking more broadly at the difference in pay between all men and all women with an entire spectrum of differences is too generalized.
Posted by: Dan S | March 6, 2007 1:43 AM
I think there is some competing logic here. There are indeed differences between men and women, and you do list a couple of them here. Namely, you note that women tend to transfer into and out of the workforce more often than men. This fact alone is costly for employers. The fact that this is a byproduct of multiple female roles is a different discussion entirely. You also note that women seek more flexible employment than do men. Again, this may be due to deeper rooted sexism in society, but job flexibility also comes at a cost. If women are eight times less likely to challenge job offers than males, there is no wonder why a pay difference exists.
What I'm trying to say is that women and men aren't identical. There are differences that possibly lead to a gap in statistics, in our case the gender gap come payday. If men and women are performing the same job at the same level of aptitude, their pay needs to be the same. Looking more broadly at the difference in pay between all men and all women with an entire spectrum of differences is too generalized.
Posted by: Dan S | March 6, 2007 1:44 AM
I am somewhat confused by your argument. First you argue that women are paid less than men. This I agree with, and studies have been done to show this. Then next you explained many reasons why womens pay is lower such as more flexible jobs, in and out of workforce, and they don't challenge offers as much as men. These also seem true, and you even quote statistics showing it. What I don't fully understand is why then you insist that women still receive the same pay? If they are doing the same job, at the same level, then I agree with you, equal pay is deserved. But if they are doing less, do they not deserve to be paid less? It just seems like you are comparing 2 different things and claiming them to be the same.
Posted by: Joe W. | March 6, 2007 6:46 PM
I concur that there are legitimate factors in place that should lead to men having a higher average salary. The child rearing as well as an innate/somewhat societally influenced reduced competitive drive for career success definitely does play a role. I still feel there are many underlying factors that are not mentioned that lead to the disparity. One key thing is the difference in the salaries of what is considered traditional women's work and what is man's work. Jobs that do not require higher learning like being a truck driver or construction worker are much greater compensated than traditional female occupations like child care worker and stylist. Also traditional gender roles make it hard for women to be perceived seriously in management/CEO type of jobs especially doing so while still maintaining what would be considered stereotypically feminine type of demeanor, as well as highly payed sports stars and celebrities are more likely to be male. Also this report is misleading as studies have shown that even when essentially every variable is accounted for a man will still make more money at the same occupation. I also find the workplace to be somewaht biased with regards to education on a related note, the government will give you a higher salary based on your education regardless of your work experience, or capacity to do the job, it is almost like a work study of sort as they know they get a better or equally competent worker for less money.
Posted by: Paul Cogliano | March 7, 2007 11:29 AM