Malik Cook Bey
January 13, 2022
CJE-3312-167
Assignment 1 Part II
Closing the Gender Pay Gap- How Does This Cause a Problem with Equal Employment
Opportunities
The Pay Gap has existed since around the 1960s when women became more prominent
in the workplace. In 1963 the Equal Pay Act was signed; it prohibited the discrimination on
account of sex in the payment of wages by employers engaged in commerce or in the
production of goods for commerce. It was passed in an attempt to prevent employers from
paying less to the women they hired solely based on the fact they were women. This attempt at
creating equal opportunity in the workplace failed due to the fact that my loopholes and court
rulings caused the law to not hold as much power as intended. Since passing in 1963 the Pay
Gap has only decreased by less than half a cent a year. Currently, women make on average 82
cent per dollar that men make. There are more legislations such as the Paycheck Fairness Act
that is attempting to be passed in order to strengthen the current equal pay protections. This
issue of equal pay can cause issues with Human Resources due to the fact that it presents a
problem of equal employment opportunity which is the role of Human Resources to protect.
Generally speaking, the Gender Pay Gap is commonly observed as 82 cents to every
dollar that men make. However, a different ratio can be calculated when other factors that are
not fully related to gender such as: industry, location, experience, and education. Once all those
factors get taken into account the difference becomes 98 cents to every dollar. Even though the
2% difference is significantly better when compared to the originally calculated 18% however
this more specific calculation of 2% has not seen much improvement. As of five years ago the
difference was only around 3%, which means in the last five years there has only been a 1%
decrease in the difference. Even just two cents a year that small difference starts to become
noticeable as it adds up over the year of employment. Human Resources offices should start to
become involved in the issue in their representative offices when there seems to be unequal
pay being exhibited. This causes them to be unequal work opportunities for its employers.
There are other reasons that start to become fuel to add to the fire of the Gender Pay
Gap are also issues the impact Human Resources due to the fact that these issues presented in
the workplace are also forms of discrimination that also cause inequality in the opportunities that
employers provide. There are two major inequalities that women can face from their employers:
the glass ceiling and the sticky floor. The glass ceiling is a term that is used to refer to different
obstacles that can stand in the way of specifically women of advancing their career. On the
other hand, the term sticky floor refers to the issues that are faced by women when they are first
starting of in the workplace. As explained in, The Gender Pay Gap: Why It’s Still Here, “The
OECD concluded that about 60% of a gender pay gap is a result of a glass ceiling while 40%
comes from a sticky floor. Regardless of which category the pay gap explanation falls into, the
issue is often subtle and difficult to address directly” (Spiggle).
The gender pay gap is something that has been an issue in the United States for many
years, even with legislation being passed there has not been much improvement exhibited in
the difference between pay given to the two genders. This is something that needs to start to be
addressed from within the workplace. Human Resource offices can start to get involved when
gender discrimination pay starts to be exhibited in their offices. It is one of the many
responsibilities of Human Resources to make sure that there is equality between the
relationship with executives and the managers as well as their employees. With the Pay Gap
being a continuous problem that has spanned multiple generations it has become apparent that
it is a prominent problem in the workplace. Even though there are steps being taken within
legislation to try and assist in helping the problem there might be steps that can be taken within
the workplace alone to help work on closing the gap.
As time continues on more and more women will start to enter different and more
diverse fields. Just in the STEM field alone women now make up around 50% of the staff
compared to even just in 2016 when they only made up 16% of the STEM workforce. With
women becoming more prominent in the workforce the gender pay gap is going to start to
become a more prominent issue of workers in human resources. Hopefully, by HR workers
starting to pay more attention to the inequality and with them bringing it to the attention of
managers they will be able lessen the gap.
The Gender Pay Gap Must Stay- How it is Not an Issue of Employer Equality
It has been arguing and spoken about since the 1960s when women became extremely
prominent in the workplace. It is constantly brought up those women only make around 82 cents
per dollar a man makes. There has even been a day named as Equal Pay Day which is
recognized on March 7th, this is because that is the day that women will make exactly how much
the average man made in the previous year. However, even though it is constantly argued for
the gender pay gap isn’t an issue of gender of inequality. It is a reflection on the differences in
position, education, and industry. When arguing for completely instituting equal pay it is not
recognized that it is something that would lead to inequality.
One of the most prominent reasons the gender pay gap appears to be so prominent is
that men are more commonly in higher positions of authority as compared to women. If equal
pay across the board would be instituted, then it would cause inequalities due to the fact people
in lower positions of authority in the workplace would be paid equivalent to their superiors who
usually work more hours and have more credentials. For example, a woman who works the
cashier at a store should they be paid the same amount as their male manager solely due to the
fact that there is a gender difference between the two, as well as a position difference.
Additionally say a woman works 30 hours throughout the week and her male counterpart works
40 hours for the week, just because there is a gender difference should they be paid the same
or would it be seen as an inequality if the male got paid more even though he worked more
hours just due to the fact that he is a male the fact he worked more hours is ignored. When
studying the wage gap there has to be multiple lens that it is viewed through in order to get the
entire picture. Factors such as position and time worked surely have to be taken into account.
What happens when the gender pay gap is being studied is that it becomes pigeonholed into
only looking at the gender differences and then pay when things such as position and time also
need to be taken into account. In totality it would actually lead to inequalities if all were paid the
same regardless of the time and position of there work. According to the National Center for
Educational Statistics, “lower-paying fields like public education teachers are statistically
dominated by women. Higher paying fields like orthopedic surgery are dominated by men, as
stated in the Association of American Medical Colleges. Surgeons get paid more than teachers
and that is a fact. The wage discrepancy here stems from career choices, not pay
discrimination” (Cason). Currently, women have started to become more prominent in higher
and more male dominant fields. If this trend can continue upwards there might start to become a
noticeable change in the gender pay gap, even without legislations or interference by human
resources.
Many times, there is still an argument presented that even when the two genders are
working under the same field there can still be discrepancies in pay. Even though the Gender
Pay Act of 1963 made it illegal for there to be a discrimination in pay strictly based on gender.
Many still argue that it still is happening in many different fields. For example, as explained in
The Gender Wage Gap is a Myth, “Even in the same profession, men and women make
different career choices that impact how much money they make. Take nursing for an example;
according to Healthcare It News, male nurses earn 18% more than female nurses. This might
be because male nurses gravitate to the best-paying nursing specialty and work longer hours”
(Cason). Now even though both are nurses the specializations that they work under can cause
there to be a difference in pay because depending on the specialty there can be more school, or
trainer required that can justify the difference in pay. Even though it is argued that by having
different pays causes there to be inequalities if there are two people one who went through 2
extra years of schooling as well as a year of training compared to someone who only had the 4
years of general schooling. Now these two people get into the workforce and are paid the same
salary just because one of these people happen to be a girl and one happens to be a boy. This
would cause more inequalities in the workplace because the schooling and difficulty of the job
are not being taken into account.
Overall, the goals of human resources are to allow there to be equality in the workplace.
There are many different opinions on how to create equality it is important to make sure that it is
being observed through many different lenses because of not making a decision from one
viewpoint would cause more inequality. There is a pay gap present but it is not due to unfair
discrimination or gender discrimination.
References
Cason, R. (n.d.). The gender wage gap is a myth. The Suffolk Journal. Retrieved January 15,
2022, from https://thesuffolkjournal.com/28647/opinion/the-gender-wage-gap-is-a-myth/
Spiggle, T. (2021, December 10). The gender pay gap: Why it's still here. Forbes. Retrieved
January 15, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomspiggle/2021/05/25/the-genderpay-gap-why-its-still-here/?sh=36520ec87baf