What Is the Wage Gap? How to Close It?

Since the late 1900s, an increasing number of women have entered the workforce. They are working longer hours and attaining higher levels of education. These may seem like positive changes compared to what women experienced in the past, but there is still a noticeable wage gap between men and women, particularly for women from various racial backgrounds.

What exactly is the difference in the wage gap between men and women? What leads to it? This article covers everything about the gender wage gap.

What Is the Gender Wage Gap?

The gender wage gap is a measure of how much women earn compared to men. People usually determine this by dividing what women earn by what men earn. They show the data as a percentage or in dollars. The data helps everyone see the difference in how much women earn for every dollar that men earn.

People frequently examine this wage gap among full-time workers who work throughout the year. They compare how much a typical man and woman make in a year. Presently, the difference is estimated to be 82%, which means that for every dollar a man earns, a woman earns around 82 cents.

Why Does the Gender Wage Gap Happen?

The method used to calculate the wage gap illustrates the earnings difference between women and men across various job types. The calculation is not solely based on when they perform the exact same tasks. It helps experts understand all the things that contribute to the wage gap.

Here are a few reasons why it occurs:

• Occupational Segregation

A wage gap between women and men usually occurs in various job roles. Historically, women who engage in professions like teaching and nursing have often been paid less compared to the jobs that men chose, like engineering and finance.

• Impact of Being a mother

The wage gap can sometimes affect women due to the breaks they take for having children and caring for their loved ones, which significantly affect their pay and career advancement.

• Unfair Treatment

Even though it has been against the law since 1963, the wage gap still occurs frequently. The data shows that it occurs even more for women from diverse backgrounds.

The wage gap also happens more often in workplaces where discussing salaries is not encouraged and employees fear facing consequences if they speak up. Unfair compensation can also happen when employers consider a person's previous salary while deciding their current pay.

• Negotiation Dynamics

Research has discovered that the wage gap often happens because women do not usually request higher salaries. If they do ask, they may face negative outcomes.

• Lack of Representation

Women are not as commonly seen in leadership and executive positions that come with higher pay.

Is the Wage Gap the Same as Pay Equity?

In the past, women and men usually ended up in specific types of jobs, which is known as "job clustering." Women often work in jobs that required skills related to taking care of their families and homes. Within these roles, a wage gap was identified, leading to lower pay for women.

Pay equity aims to rectify this unjust wage gap. It involves ensuring that roles traditionally held by women, which are equally significant as roles traditionally held by men in the same company, receive equal compensation.

Though people often use the terms "wage gap" and "pay equity" interchangeably, they do not mean the same thing. But they both address the same issue: the difference in earnings between men and women.

Closing the Gender Wage Gap

Here are some ways to help make the gender wage gap smaller:

• Promote a work culture that prioritizes achieving a balance between professional and personal life commitments. Doing this contributes to addressing the wage gap within the workforce and supporting employee well-being.
• Eliminate the practice of assigning specific jobs based on gender. Implementing this helps to counter the wage gap and promotes equal opportunities for all.
• Guarantee strict compliance with laws against discrimination. Accomplishing this measure plays a vital role in tackling the wage gap and promoting fairness in compensation.
• Enact laws that ensure women receive equal pay to men for jobs of equal importance or positions requiring similar education and skills.
• Encourage companies to disclose the salaries for the various positions they offer. Executing this can aid in identifying and addressing unfair wage disparities.
• Support policies that help employees’ families, like giving parents paid time off and letting them work flexible hours. These steps can contribute to reducing the wage gap and prevent mothers from experiencing financial losses.
• Encourage more women to choose jobs that pay well, like those in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
• Educate individuals about unconscious biases they may possess, so they can avoid treating women unfairly during the hiring process and when determining wages. Accomplishing this step contributes to reducing the wage gap.

What is the Estimated Timeframe for Achieving Full Wage Gap Closure?

Different experts have different opinions about when the difference in pay between men and women will be fixed. In 2020, the World Economic Forum published a report about this. They mentioned that if current trends continue, it might take 257 more years to eliminate the wage gap worldwide. But remember, this prediction has the potential to change due to multiple factors, such as new rules, societal changes, and economic developments.