Slow progress made to bridge gender gap
Posted September 2020
By Gracie Del Rosario and Zulema Michel-Diaz
Cub Reporters
Gender has been a controversial ideal that’s been debated over for its inequalities and views across the globe, including gross differences in salaries to the tune of $4,395, and most workplaces are attempting to bridge the gap between all aspects of gender, including the not-so-equal pay rate.
According to a 2017 Pew Research Center survey, one-in-four employed women stated they still earn less than a man working the same occupation; in comparison to 5% of men stated they earn less than women working the same job. As of 2019, women earn 79¢ to every $1 a man makes on average, and as stated by smartasset.com, financial and security advisors have the highest wage gap while wholesale and retail buyers have the smallest. In contrast, women earn more in food preparation and serving, including fast food, than men, with a $65 wage median weekly gap.
A 2017 study conducted in Pennsylvania by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill also shed light on the fact that female educators, from teachers all the way to superintendents, on average earn $4,395 less than their male counterparts yearly, when only accountable for gender differences. Multiple studies realize that women are more likely to take up jobs of the lower class and lower pay, rather than the higher, due to the expanded wage gap. Payscale.com calls this phenomenon an opportunity gap.
“Women still make less than men. The gender income gap is still an issue in 2020. Progress has been made, though, to close the gap through acts like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.”
-Psychology teacher Tracy Lind
“Women also tend to move up the career ladder at a slower pace than men,” states Payscale.com.
At a range of about 20-29 years old, men and women start their careers as individual contributors, not managing workers yet. However up until mid-careers at about 30-44 years old, 47% of men are granted higher positions like manager or supervisor compared to the 41% of women granted the same role. Looking at the very end of the spectrum of late career and 45+ years old, 8% of men reach executive level jobs while only 3% of women do the same.
Much of the unequal income is also granted from occupational segregation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employers can usually create gendered assumptions, funneling different workers into different jobs based on the assumptions. As stated by the World Economic Forum (WEF) Yemen, Iraq and Pakistan are considered to be the closest to what they would consider full gender parity, otherwise known to having the greatest difference in income, education, and other attributes between the two genders.
On the contrary, the WEF found Iceland, Norway, and Sweden to be the furthest away, nearly bridging the gap between the genders.
“Women still make less than men," said Psychology teacher Tracy Lind. "The gender income gap is still an issue in 2020. Progress has been made, though, to close the gap through acts like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.”
One attempt to bring the wage gap closer is Equal Pay Day. As stated by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE), the day was formed in 1996 as a public awareness event to demonstrate the pay gap between women and men. The day falls on a Tuesday near the first of April to illustrate how far women must work to earn the same amount as men in the previous week, and to avoid any religious and significant holidays. The US’s 2020 Equal Pay Day was March 31.