The Gender Wage Gap is Not a Problem of the Past

 

With many returning to the workforce in after the covid pandemic people are trying to get there lives back in order. This may be hard for many to do with recent studies showing that women are making less than a man would in almost every job. For women let go during covid times this could make the climb back to pre-covid life nearly impossible. This is wrong and we need to stop the discrimination that can be found in almost every job.

I know what you’re thinking 2021 the gender wage gap isn’t much of an issue. But sadly, recent studies done by PayScale for 2021 talking about lost earnings in 40 years states “We see that the average amount of money earned by women throughout their career is $850,000 less than that of men. When we control for women’s pay, it is $80,000 less. In other words, women with the same job title and qualifications as a man, making a median annual salary of $61,000 in 2021, would need to work more than a year longer to earn the same as a man.” With the uncontrolled group being able to sustain a 4-person family for more than 15 years Even with the same job and education women earn $770,000. This is no number to laugh at with that much money you would be able to support a 4-person family for over 11 years. this much money could make or break someone. With so much less money a single woman may not be able to fully support herself and that is not thinking about the fact of how drastically this could affect single moms.

 While pervious numbers were a controlled average there are even more shocking numbers when looking at specific jobs. The 5 jobs with the widest wage gap have women making 10% - 22% less than a man working the same job with the same education/experience according to PayScales top 20 jobs with the widest gender wage gap. Some of the most notable and highly ranked jobs are made up of surgeons, police, nursing, and teachers. while some of these jobs are dominated by men like police and surgeons and it may explain some of the reason it would be on the list. The part that is hard to understand is that there are also many jobs dominated by women like nursing and teaching that are on the list. Somehow still falling into the 20 jobs with the widest pay gap. If having both jobs dominated by men and women then the reason for the gap cannot have to do with a gender dominant jobs.

Not only do we see this in full time jobs but also Gig jobs. Due to covid gig jobs have been very popular and a way for people to make a living. But these jobs are no stranger to the pay gap. Even with jobs that have a so-called unbiased software there manages to be bias. With some jobs getting worse than better. A Yahoo finance article states “Female Uber drivers make 7% less per hour than their male counterparts--even though the algorithms that determine pay for the ride-hailing service are gender blind, according to a multi-year study.” How is it possible you may ask? Later, in the article it references a study done by economists on why this could be happening. They proposed that this is caused by the fact that 77% of women leave uber after 6 months compared to 65% for men. While this may be an issue it does not explain why this bias has not leveling out.

Companies deserve to be held accountable for their misrepresentation. After trumps presidency we no longer require companies to release numbers of income by gender and race. Since that time companies have released number but are they trustworthy. In a 2018 article by Bloomberg business weekly after many proposals from their board Microsoft reports a pay gap of .2%. but this is Microsoft trying to bull the wool over your eyes. The same study later talks about how Microsoft’s numbers are not so accurate. Just gender alone the pay gap was found to be 8.6%. while this number is crazy it can be explained down. If considering they have the same job and performance the percent of money lost will drop a large amount. Accounting for the same job in the calculations it was found that there is still a 2.8% difference in the pay of the controlled group. Microsoft’s number were not even half of what the real numbers are for their own county can we really trust what the company says or were they just trying to please the share holders in the company. This is the big problem while companies claim to care about this issue and want to solve them but then release false numbers to sway their stockholders. Companies can make a lot more money if they do not report it or do but incorrectly. This what we need to stop a way to crack down and find the real numbers to solve the problem for the first time in our history.