Gender Wage Gap
For Conservatives:
Viewpoint: The debate over the gender wage gap, the alleged disparity in wages between men and women (usually about 70 to 80 cents made by a woman for every dollar a man makes), is rather simple. Is it caused by discrimination against women or not? Liberals believe the former.
Reasoning: In 1963, the Equal Pay Act was passed, which prohibited discrimination in the workplace on the basis of sex. However, 54 years on, liberals believe that the wage inequality between men and women has yet to be abolished.
Liberals use many statistics to reinforce their belief that the gender wage gap exists. For example, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) in 2015, women who worked full-time and year-round only earned 80 cents for every dollar made by a man. The Institute also reported a gap of 66 percent between the pay of workers in middle-skill jobs mostly dominated by women and employees in middle-skill jobs primarily occupied by men. IWPR provides an estimate of the year in which different categories of women (separated by race and ethnicity) will finally be paid the same amount as their male counterparts. For white women, the year is 2059, whereas black women will have to wait until 2124, and Hispanics will expect less money than men until 2248.
March 24, 2021 was celebrated by many as Equal Pay Day, the day upon which working women will finally have earned the same amount since the beginning of 2020 that their male counterparts had earned by the end of that year. But why, half a century on from legislation prohibiting wage discrimination, is the wage gap still yet to be closed?
According to Olivia Mitchell, the director of the pension research council at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, there are three main reasons for the continued existence of the gender wage gap. First, she references the penalties that mothers face after having a baby. Not only are they are often perceived to be less competent and committed to their jobs, but Pew Research Center found that 39 percent of new mothers take time off to care for their child. This significantly lowers the wages of these women. In fact, according to a report by Michelle J. Budig and Paula England, the wage gap between childless mothers and new mothers is even greater than that between men and women. The solution to the motherhood penalty, Mitchell says, is subsidized daycares, where children can receive good care at affordable prices while their mothers continue to work.
The second cause for the wage gap, in Mitchell’s opinion, is the unwillingness of many women to negotiate for higher wages. According to an article on Harvard Business Review, this problem stems from the way that women are treated when they ask for increased pay. A study conducted in 2008 by Women Don’t Ask found that failure to negotiate an initial salary could result in a loss of $500,000 by age 60. Mitchell suggests that women take classes in order to improve their negotiation skills.
Finally, Mitchell says that the wage gap is partially caused by employer bias. She says that employers, often unconsciously, undervalue the work of women as compared to that of men. Mitchell believes that this particular issue will be very hard to fix, given that negative stereotypes about women are deeply rooted in society. These stereotypes also contribute to other smaller causes of the wage gap, and Mitchell says that “we need to continue the pressure to integrate women into the workplace.”
Not only are liberals invested in achieving gender equality, but they are also very anxious to end the wage gap in order to reap the many benefits that they believe will come as a result. IWPR recently analyzed federal data, finding that equal pay would reduce poverty among the families of working women by 50 percent in addition to adding $513 billion to the United States economy.
Sources:
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 – U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
3 Reasons Why the Gender Pay Gap Still Exists – Fortune
Pay Equity & Discrimination – Institute For Women’s Policy Research
For Liberals:
Viewpoint: Conservatives believe simply that the gender wage gap, the alleged disparity in wages between men and women (usually about 70 to 80 cents made by a woman for every dollar a man makes), is not a result of discrimination against women in society.
Reasoning: Most conservatives acknowledge that on average, across the entire United States, women earn less annually than men. However, they attribute this to choices made by women rather than blatant gender discrimination in society.
According to many conservatives, the 70-80 cents to a dollar statistic is extremely misleading. The process taken to find this statistic involves calculating the average wage for all women working full-time and year-round and dividing it by that of all men. Conservatives maintain that this method is flawed in that it is far too broad. It does not compare men and women in the same occupations doing identical work for the same amount of time, therefore brushing over the fact that different jobs pay different amounts of money. For example, a CEO of a company makes far more money than a nurse. If there were as many female CEOs as male and as many male nurses as female, the process of finding this statistic would produce accurate results. However, conservatives generally argue that this is not the case. They feel that women, on average, make the choice to work fewer hours at jobs that pay less money than do men.
“It isn’t that, say, female senior managers are paid less than male senior managers, it’s that there are fewer female senior managers than male.” ~ Tim Worstall, Forbes
In April of 2016, in a National Bureau of Economic Research study, a group of undergraduate students were presented with a variety of realistic career scenarios and asked to choose which they would prefer. The study found that the women, on average, were more likely to select a scenario based on flexibility and security, while the men mostly prioritized wages. While men would only give up 0.6 percent of their salary for a one percent decrease in the probability of dismissal, women were willing to decrease their wages by four percent. In terms of higher wages, men would agree to a 3.4 percent drop in their annual earnings for a one percent increase in earnings growth, while women would give up only 0.6 percent. In a similar study giving choices of college majors, it was found that males were more likely than females to choose a major based on its monetary aspects. Based on these statistics, many conservatives would argue that while there may be evidence of a disparity in earnings between males and females, it is due to voluntary choices on the part of both sexes rather than society’s discrimination.
Conservatives also contend that when comparing far more similar members of the opposite gender, the results are very different. In 2009, the CONSAD Research Corporation conducted a study in which they compared similar men and women. They found that in this situation, the gender gap narrowed to between five and seven percent. In 2016, Glassdoor.com studied over 5,000 salaries of employees in the United States. After considering factors like education and occupation, the study found that women earn 95 cents for every dollar that a man makes. While this is less than the wage gap is commonly assumed to be, it does still show evidence that a disparity exists. Conservatives continue to argue the opposite because these reformed studies do not take further variables into consideration. Research indicates that women, as opposed to men, are more likely to value non-wage benefits of an occupation such as health insurance or fringe benefits. Additionally, conservatives believe that there is evidence to suggest that on average, men work longer and more difficult hours than women do, further closing the wage gap entirely.
Sources:
Examining the ‘Gender Wage Gap’ Among Similar Men and Women – Being Classically Liberal
Men and Women Choose Careers Differently – The American Interest