The Pay Gap Narrowed Between Men And Women - 2050 Words

Has the Pay Gap Narrowed Between Men and Women in the United States? For many years in the United States, women have been faced with equality issues. Men were regarded as superior, which made women feel inferior and insignificant. One place this has occurred is the workplace. This type of inequality dates backs centuries and comes from the common belief that since men were the breadwinners, women should take care of the home and children. As a result, men were believed to be more efficient in their careers. This is also known as systemic discrimination (Kennedy et al., 2008). When women were given the right to vote, they began to progress and take their place in the workforce. As they increased in numbers, there became a need to for fair†¦show more content†¦Take law enforcement, for instance, where the police officers were solely male. If a male and female police officer passes boot camp and accepts all the risks associated with the job, shouldn’t they both be paid equal wages at the start of the job? Are gender differences a signifi cant factor in determining starting salaries? It is my belief that a woman is a person just like a man, and if they’re able to get the job done efficiently and effectively, they should be paid accordingly. Equal pay for equal work is an important issue. How gender influences pay is an interesting topic to explore given the laws in place to prevent pay inequality. The bigger issue is why employers are allowing this discrimination to continue in the 21st century. A Review of the Literature In the United States, the income disparity between men and women is often referred to as the â€Å"gender wage gap† (Meng, 2004). The U.S. Census Bureau collects data to compare the median wages of males and females. Generally the gender wage gap is expressed as a percentage of male to female earnings of full-time workers. Historically, â€Å"female employees earned significantly less than male employees for similar work† (Pagan, 2008). According to Teichgraeber (2004) the â€Å"the wage gap between men and women is narrower