The Gender Wage Gap: Why It Exists, and What We Can Do to Close It

By Harshitha Mageshkumar

"The reality is that if we do nothing it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly a hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work."

- Emma Watson

What is the gender wage gap?

In the US, on average, women earn 84￠for every dollar earned by a man. This trend of women being paid less than men is often referred to as the gender wage gap, and it can be observed in every country in the world (although some are closer to equality than others).

Because of this gap in pay, women:

• Earn less money than men overall

• Are seen as less of a priority in the workplace

• Have less financial security than a male (including retirement funds)

  • Women contribute 30% less money to retirement accounts than men do.4

• Have higher poverty rates than men

  • If women and men were paid the same, women’s poverty rates would go down by around half on average.3

Why does the gender wage gap exist?

Factors such as the continued impact of gender roles, maternity/childcare, and discrimination account for most of the wage gap.

Gender Roles

One of the causes of the gender pay disparity are gender roles, predominantly built on traditional notions of masculinity and femininity. Men were often the sole breadwinner of the family, while the women were confined to the home, doing housework, taking care of the children, and performing other “womanly duties”.

The idea of women going out and getting a job used to be a laughable notion, and while society has begun to move away from judging women based on gender roles, their influence still exists; As shown by the graph from the NCSL below, studies show that women spend more time doing unpaid labor (such as household chores, taking care of children/elderly family members, shopping, etc.), as these activities are considered “women’s work” while working in a paying job is considered “men’s work” 6. Because of the impact of traditional gender roles, less women are getting jobs, thus contributing to the gender wage gap.

Maternity/Childcare

Childcare is another key cause of the gender pay gap. Having to juggle taking care of a child with a career is difficult, and, partly due to the aforementioned gender roles, oftentimes women, even women with husbands, take the brunt of this stress. In order to take care of their children, women opt to work less hours than men— studies show that women have more part-time jobs than men do— and because of this, men are seen as hardworking and dedicated, while women are often seen as lazy slackers. Maternity leave also contributes to this opinion— because women must take off months at a time for maternity leave, it contributes to the idea that women aren’t reliable, aren’t dedicated, and aren’t willing to work hard.

Because men work more, on average, than women, they get paid more than women, contributing to the gender wage gap. Along with that, the “dedicated” men are often given more promotions and more opportunities than the “lazy women”. In a survey, mothers with children under the age of 18 often felt they could not give their best effort in their job, needed to reduce their work hours to take care of their children, or had to pass up a promotion to balance work and family; around 1/5 of women said they hadn’t even been considered for promotions or opportunities at work, and around 27% felt they weren’t being treated as if they were committed to their work.1

Discrimination

The average gender wage gap in the US is greatly increased by the wage gaps for minorities. The gender wage gap for women of color is even higher than for white women. It’s been found that in Minnesota, for every $1 men earn, while a White woman earns $0.78, Asian American women earn $0.77, Black women earn $0.61, and both Latina(x) and Native American women earn $0.545. These dramatic disparities are caused by heavy racial discrimination within the workplace.

What can we do to close the gender wage gap?

There are several things that both the government and we as individuals can do to close the gender wage gap.

To help millions of women, the government can raise the minimum wage. This amount has been unchanged for years, and while the rate of $7.25/hour may have been a sustainable pay at one time, due to inflation, someone with kids working for minimum wage year-round will earn an annual income that is below the poverty line. Many women are the sole breadwinners of the family, and because of the extremely low minimum wage, they do not have the resources to pull themselves out of poverty, to pay for a good education for themselves and their children, or to gain the skills necessary for a higher paying job. By raising the minimum wage, the government could enable millions of women to lift their families above the poverty line, get a good education, and close the wage gap.

Along with that, the government could increase pay transparency. Because most women do not know how much companies they are applying to might pay their male counterparts, they are unaware of the pay gap in the company. Acts like the Paycheck Fairness Act would work to reduce pay secrecy in companies, giving women better tools to address the wage disparity.1

The government could also pass legislation preventing discrimination because of maternal/childcare reasons. Because childcare and maternity leave are huge causes of the wage gap, by passing this kind of legislation, women will no longer have to worry about losing their job or even failing to get a job in the first place due to an employer’s concerns about maternity and childcare. More women will be able to get and keep their jobs, and thus earn more and help to close the wage gap.

On the other hand, we as individuals can do our part to close the gender wage gap by supporting and advocating for women. In order to reduce the disparity between the number of women in different industries, people can advocate for more STEM education for women, or even provide STEM education, so that women will be better equipped to enter the field of STEM, and work in a higher-paying job, helping to close the wage gap.

In addition, we can promote moving away from discrimination and bias due to gender roles, especially through social media; seeing successful women in high positions not only serves as inspiration for young women entering the workforce, but it also helps to break down the barriers that gender roles have placed on women, which discourage them from getting upper-level jobs, and those that they have placed on employers, which inhibit them from hiring, recognizing, and/or promoting women.

Conclusion

The gender wage gap is a challenge that every woman will face in their day-to-day life as a member of the workforce. However, although it is difficult to close, there are things that you can do to help close the gap. By being a supporter and an advocate for women, slowly, you can help women attain equality and be paid what they deserve.

Citations

7 actions that could shrink the gender wage gap. (n.d.). Center for American Progress. Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://www.americanprogress.org/article/7-actions-that-could-shrink-the-gender-wage-gap/

Barroso, A., & Brown, A. (n.d.). Gender pay gap in U.S. held steady in 2020. Pew Research Center. Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/25/gender-pay-gap-facts/

Clark, J. (2016, February 24). The economic impact of equal pay by state. Women in the States. https://statusofwomendata.org/featured/the-economic-impact-of-equal-pay-by-state/

Office, U. S. G. A. (n.d.). The gender pay gap and its effect on women’s retirement savings. Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://www.gao.gov/blog/gender-pay-gap-and-its-effect-womens-retirement-savings

Swift, J. (2021, February 24). What causes the wage gap? Gender Policy Report. https://genderpolicyreport.umn.edu/what-causes-the-wage-gap/

The gender pay gap. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2022, from https://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/the-gender-pay-gap.aspx