Analysis of “The Gender Pay Gap Is a Myth”
In the article “The Gender Pay Gap Is a Myth”, Steve Tobak expresses his opinion on the difference in pay between males and females. The gap in pay between men and women has been a reoccurring controversy through many decades. While some say that women are generally paid at a lower scale than men, there are others that believe that this is a myth. Published on May 3, 2013 by Fox Business, throughout this article the Tobak explains his reasoning as to why he believes that the gender pay gap is a myth. Through an analysis of the beginning of the article, what he believes about the gender pay gap discrimination, and by looking in the general demographic of Fox Business readers, it can be determined if the author is successfully persuading his readers.
In the beginning, of the article Tobak states that the gender wage gap simply isn’t true. He argues that women sacrifice their ability have the same pay as men. That women have the same pay however, women simply do not choose the professions that are high paying. A very simple answer to a large
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Tobak disregards that there might be cases where women have experienced workplace discrimination. Tobak sticks with his claim and does not entertain the idea that women in the same field, working the same jobs, are being paid less, until the end of his article. Tobak implies that the wage gap discrimination treats women like victims and actually holds women back. He continues to say that if it continues, “the legislation and government will likely do more harm than good”, because the government will be overreaching and overreacting to satisfy what he calls, “special interests”. This statement seems to imply that workplace gender discrimination in a whole is a “special interest” instead of a collective
Lastly, take risk as another factor. Majority of the workers in nearly all the most dangerous occupations, such as iron workers and loggers, are male, and 92 percent of work-related deaths in 2012 were to men. Males are also more likely to pursue occupations where compensation is risky from year to year, such as finance and law. Research shows that average pay in such jobs is higher to compensate for the risk. Therefore, due to the fact that women and men do different type of jobs and work different hours, the gap in wage is not related to gender discrimination and feminism is again proven to be irrelevant
Although the author is correct about a gender wage gap existing in America, he/she is only partially right due to misleading data, the fact that men work
Research shows wage gaps are solely a product of the choices of the second party. Woman have chosen what level of education they wish to pursue, the fields they wish to be in, and where they work. When looking back at a censuses of the early-to-mid 1900’s the majority of working women worked at small enterprises rather than booming companies: large Firms pay at higher rates, their payout going predominantly to males of the working class (Rubenstien, Michael Harvey). When taken under the scope, large enterprises rejected woman workers, and if they did hire, the lady’s income would be significantly smaller. Consequently, companies would deny the reason being that they were of a different sex, and rather blame it on how little education the skill the person had, “Frequently, even when given raises, their new pay still comes short of that of their male coworkers.
Shining some much-needed sunlight on the gender wage gap will make a difference for every one of us, men and women, right now.” (www.nytimes.com, 16). “It’s the twenty-first century, and the gender wage gap affects the daily life of women throughout the country, at every economic level, from cashier to CEO. Is it fair? No.
The fact that women who work full time make 77 percent of what men do is discrimination in its own right when Bryce Covert writes an article on discrimination on working women when he states “A more recent study by economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn found that while experience, occupation, and industry explain much of the gap, there is still more than 40 percent of it that remains unexplained, the part that could be chalked up to discrimination” (). Covert talks about women being discriminated when he states, “We can also look to the real world to see instances where it’s clear that outright discrimination is still at play… where female employees across the and with substantial experience say they were still paid less than less qualified men”(). This is also seen when an PEWResearch Center article discusses the gender gapan how “women are about twice as likely as men to say they had been discriminated against at work because of their gender (18% vs.
In 2010, President Obama addressed the issue of the gender wage gap in a written statement that stated “even in 2010, women make only 77 cents for every dollar that men earn”. The president also put pressure on the committee to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act that gives women the right to sue their employees if they’re not being paid the same as men, provided they have the same skills, experience and education. The act takes immediate steps to narrow down the wage gap, if it actually existed. Nevertheless, despite that bill being passed, many argue that the wage gap is a result of “sex discrimination”. They believe in this part of the world, women are drawing even with men in terms of education and experience, yet men are paid more and do better
Bobbit-Zeher states four identifying factors related to education which she accredits to the existence of the gap, “Gender differences on four of these measures, in particular, are implicated in the gender income gap: (1) choice of a college major, (2) skills as measured by standardized tests, (3) amount of education, and (4) selectivity of the college attended (Bobbit-Zeher, 2007, p. 4). This article is valuable in pointing out early factors which help to perpetuate the gender gap and provide a solid historical foundation for the research and scope of this thesis. This is mainly due to the consideration that the factors related to education have long been the basis for the form of discrimination that is related to this pay inequality. The
Economists Marianne Bertrand, Claudia Goldin, and Lawrence Katz examined salaries of MBA graduates from top business schools and found that even if men and women had similar earnings at graduation, after a decade men earned 60% more than women. That was an example of young people starting careers with similar levels of earnings, but over time a gender gap appears and grows. Another example is people with the same level of earnings and working the same hours. After 15 years male lawyers earned 55% more than female lawyers. That 's outrageous the gender pay gap has to stop; women work the same hours and are paid less than men?
Gender equality: the pinnacle concept that American society is not-so desperately trying to achieve. Many Americans have convinced themselves that gender equality was remedied by the Nineteenth Amendment and the Second Feminist Movement, and have not considered the thousands of steps that are left on the journey. In recent years, a matter of public interest has been the gender wage gap, stating that women are earning significantly less money than men for doing an equivalent amount of work. Critics of the effort to “break the glass ceiling” claim that a pay gap does not exist, and that if it does, it is because women either do not work as hard, have to tend to their families, or hold lower paying jobs. However, the gender pay gap has been proven to exist in a variety of different forms,
From 1950-2011, women’s labor force participation nearly doubled from 33.9% to 58.1%. Did you know that in 2014, women’s median wages were approximately 50% higher than what women earned a generation prior, and women earned 82% of what men made in 2011, up from 62% in 1979. Some people believe the reason for the pay gap between men and women is because of their own personal choices. However, studies in 2012 show that after one year in college women get paid 82% of what men do.
But now that I understand the term I realized that I too, assumed that all women in America were concern with the pay wage gap between men and women. In most careers, women make much less money than men do for doing the same exact job. I thought all women prioritized this awful pay wage gap until I realized that I prioritize this unequal pay gap because I am a Caucasian female but, for instance, an African American woman may prioritize the injustices she may face while trying to get employed over the unequal pay gap. In the article, Study: anti-black hiring discrimination is as prevalent today as it was in 1989, German Lopez stated that, “The researchers found that anti-black racism in hiring is unchanged since at least 1989… The bottom line is whether you get a job in America can come down to your race” (Gomez, 2017).
Annotated Bibliography Quast, L. (2015, November 22). The Gender Pay Gap Issue Is Fixable -- But May Require Bolder Actions To Overcome. Retrieved from Forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2015/11/22/the-gender-pay-gap-issue-is-fixable-but-may-require-bolder-actions-to-overcome/2/ It is reported by the Economic Policy Institute that although women had made tremendous records entering into workforce and gain great successes in education, but their wage is 83% comparing to men. The world forum also released a report in 2015 that women now make as much as men earned a decade ago.
Sperry and Mrs. Wagner are imaginary, wage gap inequality is very real. I would hope that as I begin my professional career, I am treated with the same high esteem as my male counterparts. Working hard all my life to be paid less is not a practice I would like to take part in. I feel the only plausible and effective way to solve the wage gap inequality is for the head of companies to intervene and take immediate action rather than taking a backseat approach and instructing companies to implement programs that won’t have an immediate effect. A hands-on approach by someone in charge will not only address the severity of the issue but will encourage all women to take it upon themselves to declare their equality and demand that they be treated as such.
The concerning conflict enclosing the issue of the Gender-Based Wage Discrepancies has been around since World War II. While the gender pay gap has grown bigger and bigger for nearly four decades, women have fought for their rights and their beliefs. Unfortunately the Gender-Based Wage discrepancies are caused because there is an existent inequality between men and women where men are considered the more capable gender between the two. In spite of this, there is a large number of countries that are trying to eliminate this broad pay gap that has caused a lot of conflict and tragedy. The quarrel behind this is the countries where no one is taking action against this gender-based wage discrepancies and women are not aware and can’t identify that their rights are being violated.
The United States is currently facing an economical problem that involves males and female differences within the workplace. Males are given bigger and sometimes even better rewards for doing equal amounts of work as their female counterparts. Females are frequently not receiving the same wage even if they can complete the same job of a male. Also, females are less likely to get promoted within their job if they are competing against a male. A source states, “Women are now more likely to have college degrees than men, yet they still face a pay gap in every single education level,