The gender pay gap has been a highly controversial topic plagued with misinformation. While I was reading the Room for Debate article "How to Reduce the Gender Pay Gap" I noticed many flaws with the arguments they were making. As many people have heard a statistic like every dollar a man makes a woman will make about 79 cents. This is just comparing the average wage a man and woman make and fails to reveal all the underlying factors that make this happen. This does not tell what occupations women and men have and also ignores educational levels. In the debate they talk about the Massachusetts law which brings transparency in workers wages by allowing employees to share with others how much they make.
As mentioned by one of the debaters, women of color and immigrants are highly concentrated in minimum wage jobs. She uses this as the basis of her argument that women of color are more likely to have a lower paying job than men. This simply ignores the education differences that cause this to happen. The state of poverty that colored people are in makes it hard for them to claw their way out. The faults of the previous systems had long lasting generational impacts. They are worse off resulting in their children being at a disadvantage to other people who are well off.
Another debater argues that men are getting jobs that will help them move up the ladder and has better pay. They use home depot as an example with women usually being a cashier and men becoming sales associates. Now as this might seem as a discrepancy in jobs women and men are getting, sales associates show the place around to the customers and men are more likely to know about tools other home appliances. Choosing the person who would know more about the topic would be more suited to be a sales associate. While it may seem stereotypical, they do have some truth to them which is why they exist, but while they do have some truth there are many that do not fall part of this. More men would work in a auto zone and more woman in a hair salon.
What are your thoughts on the Pay Gap? Does it exist or does it not exist? Am I overlooking something because it looks to be there are many factors that make the medium wage of men higher than women. I am curious to see your thoughts as I am always open to change my opinion.
-Josh Fernandez
https://apbloggers19-20.blogspot.com/2019/07/af-late-summer-reminders.html
ReplyDeleteI personally think the Pay Gap does exist because it's something we witness almost on a daily basis. Men are always considered the gender that can do all the "hard work" and labor when the women only do girly stuff or the things that the men don't want to do or can’t do. While it is true almost all men know about tool supplies, home appliances, and other things that men normally do, it doesn’t mean women don’t have the capability to do them, especially get paid less than them.
ReplyDeleteThe discrepancy of the wage gap is a serious issue going on in today’s society and it mostly has to do with sexism and racism. For instance, the women of the US national soccer team recently won their 4th championship and to this day, they don’t earn as much or anywhere near what the men’s US soccer team receives and they haven’t won a championship in years. I truly believe in the saying “behind every strong man is an even stronger woman”. The only solution to this situation is the equality that we lack nowadays in today’s society. Not fairness but equal opportunities. This also goes for the people of color, immigrants, single mothers living in poverty trying to give her kids everything she possibly can, etc. The ones who don’t get enough credit for the things they do due to the lack of publicity for their accomplishments.
The wage gape definitely exists. Sure, on average men make more than women. But, that's a statistic, and statistics should never be taken at face value.
DeleteThere are more factors than just sexism and racism that potentially and do play a role in affecting the average. In fact, racism and sexism are likely not large factors. However, you can't just say that the wage gap is solely affected by them. What is likely the largest factor is job.
Statistically, fields such as the STEM field contain more men. STEM is a very high-paying field of work. Having men working DIFFERENT jobs that pay higher will skew the average as to who makes more money.
I estimate that the reason the women's U.S. soccer team, despite winning more championships than the men's, makes less than the men's because of the soccer market. The men's soccer market is obviously larger and makes more money, even if they're less successful. However, people are more interested in the men's soccer team. Why? Again, there's probably numerous reasons. But, in the end, the people who run the men's soccer team make more money that they can then use to pay the players more.
While on paper it could be seem to be there is a big issue with the wage gap, I believe you are misunderstanding some points. The term "hard work" should be more correctly replaced by risk taking work as all work is hard and tedious. When you mention that women have the capability of knowing all about home appliances and that stuff, I do agree whole hardheartedly that they can, but I believe you missed the point I was trying to make. If something was more likely to have knowledge about a certain topic, it would be logical to take the higher chance.
ReplyDeleteIn the example you gave about the women soccer team, I would have to agree with Liam in this. The reason they make more money is because there is more interest in that particular industry which has many factors in it that would be hard to determine why. While having equal opportunities for everyone is a nice concept, it is an impossible feat to achieve. Every person is different from each other and wants different things and comes from different economic and social backgrounds.
I think that the idea of women and men typically having different jobs adds is a key factor in the pay gap but it is no surprise when we raise boys and girls so differently. I agree that in most cases men will know more about tools while women will know more about hair. This is one of the first things that need to change for equal pay. Women also fall behind in earning money because they are often expected to take care of the family and home. My comment it already long so I will avoid details but what will the pay gap look like in a world that is slowly disbanding from traditional genders? Will people that identify as a non-binary gender earn less or more than traditional gendered people?
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