Abstract
This paper tries to discuss the gender wage gap that exists in the job market. Men and women are considered differently when it comes to employment opportunities. In most cases, men are given a higher priority, which leads to increasing gender inequalities when wages are considered.
Moreover, the trends in the gender wage gap in the U.S. and Denmark are also compared. There was a reduction of the differences in the gender wage gap during the 1980s, but the benefits were not felt by women employees. Thus, women have continued to suffer due to the increasing gender wage gap.
Introduction
Gender inequality is a problem that has existed for many years. Men and women have achieved different gains politically, socially, and economically. Despite the gains, various inequalities have existed. In many cases, women have suffered more, thus they bear the brunt of gender inequalities.
The problem can be seen more when it comes to wages earned by members of both genders. Within the job market, there is an increasing gap between the wages earned by both males and females. The reality that most men hold positions of power is seen as the reason for the sustained gender inequality (Wolford, 2005).
In many countries, the differences arising from the gender wage gap is much higher for higher income workers in comparison to low income workers. Thus, when high income workers are analyzed, most of them are comprised of men. Very few women belong within this category. On the other hand, more women exist within low income jobs (Wolford, 2005).
Thus, there have been various occurrences that have led to a reduction in the gender wage gap. One such factor is deindustrialization, which has facilitated the decreasing wage gap. Employment has changed from manufacturing to services (Kongar, 2008). Jobs in manufacturing require highly skilled individuals, thus many women could not access such jobs. In the North, the developing service industry also resulted in a decline in men’s salaries, leading to the decreasing wage gap.
The service industry was also characterized by a lower wage gap in comparison to the manufacturing industry. For many women, working in a labor intensive field like manufacturing was not beneficial. Such roles were traditionally considered for males. In comparison, the service industry is traditionally considered to be a preserve of women, thus moving towards this industry resulted in decreasing the wage gap (Gupta, Oaxaca, & Smith, 2006).
Government intervention
Inequalities due to employment opportunities and wages still exist, despite the establishment of various legislations in countries like the U.S. and Canada. In the U.S., men and women are at an equal level when it comes to the achievement of a degree status. Thus, the inequalities begin to arise from this point. Women have a lower chance of acquiring advanced education beyond the degree level. This is seen as a preserve of men. Moreover, men will be able to earn more within the duration of their lifetime in comparison to women.
For instance, a man with a bachelor’s degree will be able to make $900,000 more than women in their lifetime (Kongar, 2008). In order to solve the inequalities, the U.S. Congress passed an Equal Pay Act in 1963 which sought to prevent disparities in employment opportunities and wages. Thus, both women and men within a workplace were expected to receive an equal pay in pursuant to this Act (Kongar, 2008). This was an important policy, but it failed to solve issues of gender differences in the education sector.
Gender disparity exists when it comes to academic or educational success. Initially, men scored better grades in class in comparison to women. This is slowly changing as women have begun to get better scores in SAT exams. In some cases, there are no differences amongst the two genders.
Thus, the results have been able to show that indeed women are prepared for advanced education and employment opportunities. This led to the establishment of a legislation called Title IX that sought to increase educational opportunities that women can access. Thus, more women have been awarded scholarships to advance their education (Wolford, 2005).
The issues women are faced with in regard to wages start early in their careers. Women begin with lower pay in comparison to male workers, thus the issue will persist for their entire lifetime. With time, the gap widens as more men than women are considered for salary increases and promotions.
In the U.S., the salaries women earn are only 76% of men’s salaries. This has been the trend for the last 30 years. Moreover, women who have higher degrees easily get employment, but it does not translate to decreased gender wage gap because many of the women do not reach the higher levels within the occupation in comparison to males. This can be attributed to gender beliefs. Thus, women will not feel urged to ask for better pay or seek promotions due to belief in gender stereotypes (Kongar, 2008).
Trends in gender wage gap
The gender wage gap witnessed a decrease during the 1980s, but this trend was reversed in the 1990s. Thus, the wage gap decreased significantly during the 1980s in the U.S. During this time, many women were able to access employment opportunities in high paying jobs previously held by men.
Moreover, more women had experience levels that were required in most of these employment opportunities. This was attributed to the increasing number of women who had access to better education. This period was considered as feminism of labor (Kongar, 2008). It was marked by an increasing number of women taking up jobs. In comparison, there was an increasing gender wage gap within occupations in Denmark.
The gender wage gap in Denmark was increasing or stagnant between 1983 and 1995 (Gupta, Oaxaca, & Smith, 2006). This was attributed to developments occurring in the public sector and discrimination against women who held positions with high wages.
For instance, the Danish government implemented various welfare schemes to help working women. Thus, most women would be absent from work. This discouraged employers from giving women important roles within an organization. In the U.S. such initiatives were not available for women, thus they did not face discrimination from employment opportunities.
Gender discrimination has also been on the decrease in the U.S., thus more women have had access to better positions in employment. Initially, males were usually considered for important roles within businesses and companies. In many cases, they were given a higher preference for opportunities like leadership roles within organizations.
The use of computers and other technological advancements also resulted in decreasing wage gaps. Such jobs did not require physical labor, but just the ability to operate computers. This was an easy task for women, thus many found opportunities that had better wages (Kongar, 2008).
Improvements on the gender wage gap occurred more slowly during the 1990s. Thus, the female to male earnings ratio saw an increase of only 3.6 percent. Despite this, the wage gap within the service industry was still smaller in comparison to the manufacturing industry. Research has shown that if a high number of men in comparison to women switched from high-paying jobs, then the gender gap would have decreased (Kongar, 2008).
This means that more women will have access to high-paying jobs, thus reducing the existing gap. On the other hand, if more women than men took up jobs within the service industry, then the gender wage gap would continue to increase. Many jobs within the service industry pay lower wages, thus they are not sufficient to empower women financially. Therefore, changing policies that are discriminatory to women within the workplace have had an impact on reducing the gender wage gaps.
In the 1990s, a higher number of males and females still occupied positions traditionally considered to be their roles. For instance, over 60% of women still held positions in nursing and clerical work, while 69% of men occupied managerial, sales, security, health, and protective service occupations.
Many of these careers had higher wages, thus the gap was harder to reduce (Wolford, 2005). Occupational segregation occurred because of workers’ movement across occupations. This affected the size and composition of the occupations. Thus, more men began to take up roles within occupations in the service industry like nursing. This encouraged change in roles as both men and women interchanged the occupations considered to be traditional to each of the genders.
Components to explain wage differences
There are various components used in trying to explain the various wage differences that exist. The first is the use of cross-occupations effect as a component that is used to describe how women’s wages have improved over the years because of desegregation within occupations. The second component looks at across-occupations pay effect.
It considers the importance of various occupations, especially those considered to be male intensive and the wages within such occupations. These male-intensive occupations are seen to have a significant effect on the wages earned by women. The third component used in research is based on the movement of women from an occupational considered traditionally for women to one that is male intensive.
However, the entry into a male intensive occupation will not guarantee the female that they will get higher pay in comparison to their previous jobs. The final component considers within-occupations pay effect. Thus, specific occupations are considered and the differences in gender wages are analyzed. In this case, the wages received by males within the same occupations as women are higher (Kongar, 2008).
Women have also moved from traditional female occupations to male-intensive occupations, but it does not improve their wages. This arises because traditional female-occupations have undergone changes to ensure that they are gender-equitable. The strategies were put to ensure that gender wage differences were corrected. Thus, some women moved to male-intensive occupations that did not ensure gender equitable pay. Women did not gain because the occupations they got into did not have gender-equitable pay.
Conclusion
The gender wage gap has been on the increase over the years. This occurs despite the various strategies that have been applied to deal with the problem. Deindustrialization was a major factor that led to narrowing of the gender wage gap, but it was only temporary. Thus, women will continue to receive lower wages in comparison to males.
References
Gupta, N. D., Oaxaca, R. L., & Smith, N. (2006). Swimming upstream, floating downstream: Comparing women’s relative wage progress in the United States and Denmark. Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 59(2), 243-266.
Kongar, E. (2008). Is deindustrialization good for women? Evidence from the United States. Feminist Economics, 14(1), 73-92.
Wolford, K. M. (2005). Gender discrimination in employment: wage inequity for professional and doctoral degree holders in the united states and possible remedies. Journal of Education Finance, 31(1), 82-100.