YOMAG - Money & Economy - Do women and men get equally paid for the same jobs?

Rating: (6)

Do women and men get equally paid for the same jobs?

Antwerp 5. 01. 2007

The picture of a working woman

One should expect the answer to be affirmative, because after all, we live in a time where there are laws against all types of discrimination.

Yet studies point out that men and women don`t get the same wages, even though they do identical jobs. For example in the United States.

A law against sex-based discrimination was passed in 1963 by the Congress in the USA. This 'Equal Pay Act's' goal was ''To prohibit discrimination on account of sex in the payment of wages by employers engaged in commerce or in the production of goods for commerce.'' A noble goal but the tradition of inequality was hard to change. The difference in wages exists since people started to work to make a living but was found normal because men had received a higher education, were employed in higher functions and assured the main family income. (essortment 1)

First of all, this 'traditional' organization of the family is and was not always possible or the best option. Because of divorces, single-mom families, death, diseases or other reasons, more and more families weren't built up that way and their number keeps increasing. (essortment 1)

Secondly, the reason for the enormous gap before 1963, ''women working full time made 59 cents to a full-time working man's dollar'', that women in general had less education and therefore were not able to do the same jobs, doesn´t count anymore. (Western) Girls and boys do now get equal chances for education and women have proved to be as capable as men to be employed in higher functions. In the years after the passing of the ´Equal Pay Act´, the gap was expected to disappear because of equal education, opportunities and jobs for both women and men. This reasoning proved to be wrong: the wage gap still stands at 23 cents. (Murphy 2)

One possibility could be that employers regard female workforces as less reliable or constant since they are usually the ones taking time off for children, taking maternity leaves or working part time, not men. But an American study pointed out that even if you are a woman working full time, without taking maternity leaves, you will lose ´between $700,000 and $2 million over your working lifetime´. (Murphy 2)

As far as the wage gap for fulltime workers concerns, I think we need clear rules and repetitive controls for equal payment. If employers do not conform to these rules, penalties should follow.

In general, I think we need a big change in the way we think when it comes to work and family organization. Many jobs are still thought as -only for women- or -only for men-. Often, in the jobs where mostly women are employed, the wages are lower (ex: nurse, female job-doctor, male job). Also the fact that women, not their husbands, are the ones working part time for their children, is the consequence of a quite archaic way of thinking. We must realize that also fathers can work more in the household and that mothers can be the primary income producers.

Sources

1) essortment, http://nc.essortment.com/equalpayact_rvwx.htm

2) Murphy E., Graff E. J., Why woman are still paid less than men, http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/10/09/the_wage_gap/