The Wage Disparity Between The Poor And The Rich (Essay Sample)

The Disparity between the Poor and the Rich
Name
Institution
The Wage Disparity between the Poor and the Rich
Introduction
Wherever people live, there are social issues that affect them, and which sometimes begin with few individuals in the society but rises to occupy the globe. In the United States, there are several social problems including the increase in drug abuse and crime rates, the issue of abortion, gay marriage, racial discrimination, and the rising gap between the poor and the rich. However, one of the social problems that has been noted in the United States, and which has penetrated the other parts of the world is the rising gap between the rich and the have-nots. Although economists argue that the country’s economic stability is in the fall, there are those who are amercing wealth continuously. Indeed, there are some states within U.S.A where the numbers are openly noted, as the gap is wide enough to notice that whereas there are billionaires, the neighbors to the billionaires do not own homes and are not employed. Addressing this particular has always been the desire of the government, yet, the incidences are not controllable as doing so would interfere with the rights of other citizens and eventually killing the spirit of democracy in the United States of America.
Incidences of Wage Gap between the Poor and the Rich
The pay gap between the highest earners and the lowest earners has been on the rise since 1979. According to “U.S.A Today”, the 1% of the wealthiest families have had their wages doubled between 1979 and 2011. However, the salaries of the average earning American has for the same period only increased by 6% (Frohlich, 2015). According to Frohlich, in the Wall Street, on a scale of 0 to 1, with the lowest point representing equal wages and the highest point representing complete inequality in the wages, then, in the whole of the United States of America, an income of 0.31 goes to 20% of those who are poor while 51.4% of the total income goes to the richest in the country CITATION Fro15 \l 1033 ( Frohlich, 2015).
The major contributors of income inequality are quite many. For instance, these factors include the variation in wealth control, differences in the level of education, race, and gender as well as the tax policies which favor the top earners more than the low-income earners. About the asset control, it is believed that more than half of the property and property within the country is owned by 3% of the top earners. Whereas that is true, there are those citizens in the country who do not have property, even a house of their own. The disparity in education, on the other hand, has significantly impacted on the wage gap, since those who are learned get the best opportunities in the job market as well as in the government (Reardon, 2011). Sadly, a good education can only be afforded by the wealthy. Up to 2015, the children whose parents had died could not get good schooling simply because of their background. However, after the “No child left behind the initiative,” American children can get a good education regardless of their background ( Flores, 2017). Gender on the other hand also contributes to the widening wage gap, as it is claimed that the women are paid less than the men with whom they are in the same field, and sadly enough, the trend is observable across all the occupations. Some claim that even the level of education cannot bridge the gap that exists between men and women when it comes to payment (Flynn, 2016).
Prevalence of Wage Gap between the Poor and the Rich
Wage gap issues affect virtually every state with the United States of America. However, according to Frohlich, some states have higher wage gap as compared to the other states ( Frohlich, 2015). For example, New York, Connecticut, Louisiana, California and Minnesota states have wage gaps in the range of 0.48 to 0.5 in the scale 0 to 1, where zero means pay equality while 1 means complete inequality in salaries ( Frohlich, 2015). Other countries, especially in Africa also suffer from gender wage gap.
Historical Trends and Key Developments in Solving Wage Gap in the United States
The pay gap has been a social issue in the United States for quite a long time, especially since the comparison began. However, the governments that have led the States have continually made improvements in the bid to reduce the wage gap, although the difference is practically impossible to close. The country’s economic policy to resolve the gap has always been to raise the economy of the country so that all of the citizens who begin without wealth, but who work hard can also benefit from the favorable economic state. In 1995, the policymakers made a landmark for starting an economy that would see the country rise above any other country. However, in 2000, the economy continued expanding except that it benefitted a few individuals who were already wealthy. Those who had based their power of earning the college degree suffered more as a result of the economic dynamics of the time (The Economist, 2006). The wage gap rose the highest in 2005 since 1928 when the top 1% of the high-income earners shared the greatest chunk of the national income ( Cay , 2007).
Social Factors Contributing to the Widening of the Wage Gap
Education plays a critical role in determining the wages that the individuals earn. Those with college degrees earn different salaries from those who have high school certificates, even if the two are employed to work in the same field. The professors earn much higher salaries than the mere graduates even though the one who does more work is the one with the lowest grades and academic qualifications. However, that is speaking from the physical aspect. Many scholars believe that the real work is done in the brain, but the hard laborer just fixes what has already been made (United States Department of Labor, n.d.).
Gender is a key factor in as far as wage gap is concerned, and in America, several organizations have come up to beat their drums against what they term as inequality in wages offered to women as compared to the wages provided to men in the same field and the same qualifications. An example of such organizations includes National Women’s Law Center, which asserts that the women are being discriminated against the men when it comes to employment and remuneration. However, the women also have the burden of family responsibilities which in essence may make them quite unstable in their delivery of the intended output of the companies (National Women's Law Center, 2013).
In the bid to catch up with the other people in other countries regarding accumulated wealth, there are quite some individuals in other nations such as Nigeria, Kenya among other developing nations who have resorted to corrupt dealings to accumulate the wealth to themselves. Corruption is one of the issues that continues to fuel the difference in wage gap virtually in every country (Gyimah-Brempong, 2002). There have also been reports that senior people even in the States government who are evading taxes. These are cases of corruption that have culminated to the rising wage gap. Discrimination against the women is in itself a high form of corruption that deprives the individuals of getting what is rightly theirs (Gyimah-Brempong, 2002).
Political Factors Contributing to the Widening of the Wage Gap
Government Policies like taxation significantly affects the wage gap. For example, in the United States of America, the government has been criticized for putting tax policies that continue to suppress the income of the low earners but does not greatly affect the wealthy. Employment and tendering minimums also affect the wage gap in those only specific people who are already rich are likely to be given the well-paying jobs.
The distribution of resources as determined by the government also affect the communities and the much that they can get from such resources. For example, considering the certain regions to be given particular advantages of the others, raises the economic stability of such areas and which impacts on the revenues for the communities. Most governments have allocated resources to specific regions with the interest of building the financial state of those areas in the expense of other areas. This kind of resource distribution is pervasive in most African countries, where there are communities that have been marginalized and left to cry foul of historical injustices (Raleigh, 2010).
Women legislators are not very many as compared to the male legislators. Usually, because of the inequality in the gender representation, usually, the gender issues are not politically discerned or do not take a bigger weight of the time of the politicians. Because of that women interests are not taken care of in a manner that can help in the solution to the problem of gender wage disparity. Although most women are apolitical, their interests are supposed to be equally addressed politically.
Economic Factors Contributing to the Widening of the Wage Gap
The United States is one country that is well endowed with natural resources including the metallic minerals, coal and crude oil. Most of these resources are controlled by individuals who are already wealthy. The workers, on the other hand, are used to produce to the benefit of the owners of the fields that contain the natural resources. As such, the owners continue to become productive whereas the workers do not benefit much from the profits generated by the resources. This inequality in the distribution of resources also enables one part of the country to experience a high economic growth as compared to the other regions of the country where such raw materials do not exist (Fleisher & Wang, 2004).
Men can also be said to have high income because of their economic stance. Naturally, it is assumed tha...