The Wage Gap In America

The Wage Gap in America

The wage gap is a serious problem that has consequences for women in America, our two parent families and our single mom households. The government tries to reduce the wage gap between men and women’s earnings and tries to make sure that women’s talents are properly used and rewarded. A lot has been done to relive the wage gap in the past fifty years, but it still is not enough. Women can do things on their own to help close the wage gap. They can get a non-traditional job or they can join a union. Women need to find out a company’s policy and discuss their salaries. The wage gap is a problem American women need to address, not wait on the government to fix it for us.

The wage gap can be defined as the difference in pay between men and women. Even though just as many women work as men; they still do not take home as much of the money. The average male takes home 41,211 dollars a year, while women earn less coming in at around 31,169 dollars a year. This means a woman gets seventy six percent of what a man gets. The wage gap exists partly because the female dominated jobs such as sales, clerical and service jobs pay less. If women in the workforce earned the same as men who worked the same amounts of hours their families would earn 4,000 dollars more a year. Many women take time off to stay with the children. This means they missed out on raises, promotions, and work experience.

In this country we have a growing number of households where women provide most or all of their families’ income. If the wage gap was closed the rate of single mom households below the poverty level would be cut in half. Women’s wages being increased would help women became more self sufficient. Decreasing the wage gap would result in a reduction of the amount of single mom households on government assistance. More government programs to help single moms with child care, education and job training into non-traditional jobs would decrease the wage gap.

Business can take the first step towards pay equality by examining their pay practices to determine if they treat all employees the same. Many employers may not realize their pay scale favors white men. Women are less likely to receive additional compensation such as bonuses, stock options, and profit sharing. Equal pay makes good business sense. It promotes a workforce that feels valued, which helps the bottom line. Fair pay polices will attract the best workers. The national committee on pay equality has a ten step guide that is developed to assist employers to recognize and reward the skills of working women.

Women can decrease the wage gap by joining a union. Union members and the workers represented by unions have been paid higher wages than non-union members. Union membership and representation has been proposed as one way to raise women’s wages and decrease the wage gap between men and women. Most union members are in the public sector and include firefighters, police officers and teachers. Union pay advantage for women is 30.9 percent. 43.6 percent of the union members are women.

Consider a career in a non-traditional field could help women close the wage gap. When making decisions about what to do when we grow up, most women tend to steer away from jobs they associate with men’s work. Jobs dominated by men typically pay higher wages and offer good benefits. Many non traditional jobs such as technical jobs, skilled trade occupations, and electrician provide on the job training. This means you are getting paid while training unlike many of the women’s jobs. In America, we have vocational training in high school. Girls are usually encouraged to do cosmetology or office work.