Gender Salary Gap In The United States

Gender salary gap in the United States

The gender salary gap in the United States is real, and statistics now are that women earn 80 cents for every dollar a man earns. And although the gap becomes smaller and smaller every year, we will not be equal until 2059. And many people say that the reason for this gap is that it is only the discrimination of women and there are no other factors that influence the wage gap. But in reality, the salary gap is not caused by the simple discrimination of women by companies, the reasons for the wage gap are what is called the ‘penalty of the mother Campana’, the work flexibility and, finally, the opportunity gap. These three reasons are like a chain, connected to each other and when one is affected, the other two will also be affected.

First, let’s see what is called ‘Penalty of Maternity’. At first glance, it seems certain that it is discrimination against women, and ready, the salary gap is caused by pure discrimination. But not so fast, the penalty of motherhood are the effects that motherhood has on women’s elections when they think of future financial occupations / goals once they have a child. And that effect is huge when the salary gap is observed, because according to studies in Denmark that can be translated into the USA. UU., It shows that ‘the initial average salaries for men and women are quite similar, but once women have a child, average salaries are significantly reduced, while the salary of men having a child remains the same (Vox)‘.

Again, this could be another reason that shows discrimination, but not so fast again, these average salaries are not only going down because companies do not give these women jobs on purpose or pay unequal amounts because they have a child. Because the evidence shows ‘when the gender salary gap is control.com)’. And in this case, the salary gap is very lowercase, but once it is not controlled and we are analyzing all different occupations and qualifications for each man and woman in the United States, it is when the gap increases around 80 cents. Woman for every dollar that a man earns. This is where the penalty of maternity comes into force, and many women who work eventually have a son between 25 and 35 years old, and ‘the gender wage gap in the United States is the largest for women in their 30 years – inOther words, his best years of maternity. ‘(Vox) This is not just a coincidence, women’s mentalities can change once they have a child. They may want to work closer to home than before and those jobs can be jobs with lower salaries than their previous occupation, the hours you want to work now must be more flexible so that you cannot have regular job with fixed schedules such as jobs thanThey are in the business sector, accountant, construction worker, jobs that tend to pay more on average. The works that have more flexible schedules most of the time will pay less, and also the mother will probably want to work less hours when she has a newborn to take care of the baby compared to the amount of hours that a man will work when she has a newborn . The maternity penalty also includes the amount of lost experience when a woman is on maternity leave, in certain countries such as Denmark, maternity leave is twelve months, that is, a full year of lost experience, and 1 additional year ofexperience that a man won at work. This difference in the experience caused by the penalty of maternity is another reason why, when it possibly works in the same work as a man, a woman could gain less.

Another reason for the salary gap is work flexibility, yes, everyone wants to have flexible schedules at work, but to some extent women who are not so far from having a child and do not have the resources to hire a babysitter to returnFor its old occupation, it is absolutely necessary to have flexible schedules to properly care for the child. The penalty of maternity attacks again, and ‘worldwide, women tend to do more unpaid care at home than men, and women tend to be overrepresented in poorly paid jobs where they have the necessary flexibility forAttend these additional responsibilities’. (Ourworldindata) These women who previously had decent paid jobs, but who do not have the resources to take care of a babysit. But with the benefit of flexible hours in most cases it comes with an average cost of being a job with a lower time, when the total number of hours worked is the same as that of men. This need for labor flexibility caused by motherhood expands the gap even more than discrimination. Because we tend to look at the average salary between men and women when determining the salary gap, therefore, when more women seek and occupy these flexible works with lower salaries, it will tend to reduce the average salary of women, while theaverage salary of men is maintained. Same. 

Now, finally, the question of why the salary gap is not reduced once the child grows and the mother can return to his better paid work with fixed hours. As mentioned above, the penalty of maternity causes a mental change in women’s life, so after having a child, a woman could get used to flexible job and prefer it to a period of nine to five, although he pays less. They could see this flexible work as their new way of life now and see this work as the best for her and the way her family will work in the future. And if this is the case that is considering that there is still a salary gap of approximately twenty cents, we can connect it again with the ‘penalty of motherhood’, all the factors that create the wage gap begin with the penalty of motherhood.