If you are a woman in the working business, you will probably start to notice that your male coworkers have been receiving higher salaries. However, California's gender wage gap is now the narrowest in the country. According to new statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, women in California are now making 89 cents for every dollar earned by a man. That is up slightly from last year and is now the narrowest of any other state. Although we should be happy its "closer", how come we aren't able to push for equality?
In April of 2019, Siebel Newsom, the wife of Governor Gavin Newsom, the 13 inaugural signatories agreed to conduct an annual companywide gender pay analysis as well as review hiring and promotion processes. The figure averages around 80 centers per dollar nationally. Even people like Vasu Reddy, who is on board with the senior policy counsel for workplace programs, has stated that the wage gap across the country has been very persistent over the years. This money that has been lost could be put towards women's needs such as food, housing payments, utilities, etc.
Overall, the national group estimates California women lose an average of more than $78.6 billion each year as a result. Some may say that just "it's just 11 cents", but when you are losing THAT much money, the gap seems much wider. "Equal pay is not just about the equitable treatment of women or an individual company's fair treatment of women - it's about human belonging."
We live in a world where women are claimed to have the same rights as men but that is still not entirely true. Women’s pay continue to increase in comparison to men but it is not equal yet. This does not seem fair at all. Many women have sacrificed themselves in filing for lawsuits, like Google employees and Lilly Ledbetter. They have sacrificed themselves for the benefit of women as a whole and it continues to be unequal to men. It’s frustrating because it doesn’t seem like anything else can be done to change this. How much longer will it take for women be treated equally?
ReplyDeleteThe pay gap is an undeniable issue in the United States, with overwhelming evidence backing its claims. Legislation such as the Equal Pay Act of 1963 has been established to abolish this gap in wages, but is largely ineffective due to how loosely it is enforced and how difficult it is to measure the actual wage gap. That being said, it is dangerous to view the wage gap one-dimensionally. I myself, being a man, is in no position to discredit the gap without evidence. Nonetheless, I must challenge the misleading statistic which contributes little nuance to the current arguments regarding the gender wage gap. The statistic that for every dollar made by a man, a woman makes 82 cents is an example of misleading statistics. The statistic is provided by the National Partnership for Women & Families. This is a conclusion drawn from the median annual pay comparison of $45,097 for women versus $55,291 for men. Two additional arguments can be drawn from this one statistic. In support of the argument that there is a significant wage gap, the actual wage gap is $10,194 per year, which is more accurate and seems more significant than 82 cents per dollar. However, the counterargument is equally strong, if not more supported by the statistic. The parameter of this statistic is the wage of all women in the United States and the wage of all men in the United States. That being said, no distinctions are drawn across different occupations. The characteristics of jobs that are primarily occupied by women are not compared with the jobs that are primarily occupied by men. It would perhaps be more constructive if we can analyze statistics regarding wage gaps in very specific occupations to abolish such inequitable practices once and for all. It would also be helpful if we look at the distribution of men and women in these occupations to understand how women, or even men, are facing difficulties in entering a job field.
ReplyDelete