The wage gap between men and women

This assignment explores the research on the wage gap between men and women. The first section looks at what is known about the size of the wage gap. The second section looks at possible explanations for the wage gap.

The size of the wage gap:

According to the most recent data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2018, women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median usual weekly earnings of $889, compared with $1,003 for men. This means that women earned about 89% of what men earned (US Department of Labor, 2019).

This gender wage gap has been closing over time. In 1979, women earned about 62% of what men earned (US Department of Labor, 2019). However, the rate of change has slowed in recent years. For example, between 2000 and 2018, the gender wage gap closed by about 2 percentage points (US Department of Labor, 2019).

There are a number of possible explanations for the existence of a gender wage gap.

One explanation is that women and men tend to work in different types of jobs. Women are more likely to work in lower-paying occupations such as teaching, nursing and social work, while men are more likely to work in higher-paying occupations such as engineering, computer science and management (US Department of Labor, 2019).

Another explanation is that women are more likely to have interruptions in their careers due to childbearing and caregiving responsibilities. This can make it difficult for women to build up the same level of work experience and job-specific skills as men (Babcock & Laschever, 2003).

A third explanation is that women face discrimination in the labor market. This can take the form of employers being less likely to hire or promote women, or women being paid less than men for doing the same job (Babcock & Laschever, 2003).

It should be noted that the gender wage gap is just one measure of gender inequality in the labor market. Women also tend to be concentrated in lower-paying jobs and occupation categories and are underrepresented in leadership positions (US Department of Labor, 2019).

Despite the fact that the gender wage gap has been closing over time, at the current rate of change, it will not be eliminated entirely until 2059 (US Department of Labor, 2019).