Equal Pay for Equal Work Research Paper (Research Paper Sample)

Equal pay for equal work
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According to the Pew Research as reported by (Clark, 2014), the gender pay gap has narrowed over time, but there is a need to address challenges to eliminating disparities of pay based on gender. Women earned 64 cents for every dollar per hour compared to men for the same position in 1980, but by 2012 they earned 84 cents to a dollar. Nonetheless, the pay gap has mostly narrowed for women between the ages of 25-34 representing 93 cents for a dollar earned by men. According to the National Parnternship.org (2014), the average annual pay for an American woman in 2013 was $ 39,157 while that of a man was $ 50,053 representing a difference of $ 10,876 or 78 cents for every dollar.
Even though, there is recognition that legislations on equal pay would ensure compliance more needs to be done to address the gender pay gap. As such, local governments, business organizations and trade unions ought to highlight on the objective of equality when deciding on the best policies to narrow the pay differentials based on gender. Women have increasingly participated in the labor market more than ever before, while playing the traditional roles at home. It is noteworthy that women are more likely to be employed in occupations where earnings are low or the public sector. In any case, there are changing views on the role of gender roles in the society.
Even though, more women are occupied in low paying jobs compared to men, this does not capture the prevailing situation for those working in the same occupation. As such, the notion that female employees make less because of their occupations fails to recognize the differences in the labor market. In reality, the highest paying jobs have a bigger pay gap including medicine, business and law (Miller 2014). The problem is not the occupation, but rather the gender, since even if women chose the highest paying jobs this would eliminate only 15% of the pay disparities for those between 30 to 35 years (Miller, 2014). It is the work culture that may explain some of the pay disparities.
According to Miller (2014), there is need to focus on the role of workplace flexibility especially on the number of hours and location. The biggest pay gap has mostly been concentrated in occupations where there is incentive to work for long hours or particular time (Miller, 2014). Flexibility is particularly important for women with young children who may find it hard to balance work and family life depending on the nature of the job and working hours. Hence, even anti-discrimination laws and polices might not be enough to deal with the situation of gender pay gap. In cases, where employees can easily substitute for each other, the pay gaps are even less, and it is the changes in the labor market that may eventually lead to more equitable pay for both men and women.
Pay gaps are different among men and women for every race and state in the U.S. the impact of the wage and income disparity results to lower consumption by families extending to lower purchases and investments. Women are increasingly the sole providers in American families, and even among married women they are also co-breadwinners. The wages and income of women directly affect a family’s finances, and eliminating the gender pay gap would be crucial to enable women to sustain their families better. The female male income disparity cannot be explained by choices alone given that it cuts across the same occupations, different industries even for those with similar education attainment and experiences as men.
Equal pay of equal work is important to eliminate workplace discrimination based on gender. However, the problem of stereotypes and perceptions on gender roles still persist, and this could explain the disparities on wage and incomes between...