Throughout the world, discrimination in all forms has continued to be a constant struggle; whether it’s racial, gender-based, religion, beliefs, appearance or anything that makes one person different from another, it’s an everyday occurrence. A major place that discrimination is occurring at is in the workplace. The largest discrimination problem is believed to gender-based, because of the pay gap. Men and women have been receiving different pay for doing equal work for decades, this has become a bigger issue because men have noticeably been receiving greater pay than women.
When employers refer to the pay they’re giving their employees the only information that should be being talked about should be their background knowledge, not their race, appearance, sex, or etc. While women have been going to college and getting the same as or better educations as men, this is a huge factor that has not been being considered. This is not only unfair, but it is wrong because what make all men deserve better pay than women? The equal pay, equal work is a substantial subject with a vast amount of studies. These studies have included extensive debates and research over the past three centuries.
Although the equal pay, equal work predominantly affects more women, than it does men, it shouldn’t be happening at all. In 2003, the Government Accountability Office reported in that women in 2000 make eighty cents for every dollar earned by men. (“Gender Pay 8”). However, sometimes men and women deserve different pay, men shouldn’t be always make more than women. Also, it should even out, one gender shouldn’t have a higher pay percent. At the rate it is growing at, it will be another fifty years before it can be considered to be equal pay, equal rights. “Discrimination 1”).
In today’s society men are viewed as more experienced even when there is no evidence of this experience. This is an issue because an individual hired at the same time as another should receive the same starting pay. This should happen until it is shown they deserve more pay than what they are receiving or that they perform their job better than others employees. Employers will be less to blame for these issues if the consider their experience but not take action until it is obvious they know what they’re doing and are good at their job.
Throughout the years, the workforce has grown a considerable amount and women have become the larger portion of employees(“Gender Pay 8”). Also, women have become the larger gender percent to graduate college with higher educations since they believed this would better their incomes(“Gender Pay 9”). Women deserve equal pay rights, not all men deserve to make more than women. This has started to become an enormous issue in today’s world because women have been fighting the gender wage pay gap for fifty years and hardly seeing the results they want(“Discrimination 1”).
Not only women with higher educations are affected by the gender wage gap, but also the individuals who work the minimum wage jobs are being affected by this. Men who start a job at the same time as women tend to start out with higher pay or they receive raises before women who started the job at the same time as men(“Equal Pay Day 1”). When this changes it will make people be more equal and men and women will have no difference. When equal pay for equal work is discussed, the factors that go into what an employee’s is going to make needs to be discussed.
Equal pay for equal work needs to be discussed because it will prevent future problems and cases towards an employer. The major thing that need to be discussed is the experience behind each and every employee and why they’re being paid what they are. This can be based on many things like jobs, high school and college education, volunteering, etc. Many studies have been done on the reasonings behind the pay gap, a big portion of this has shown that it isn’t about the gender. Some studies that were done involved Bureau Labor Statistics.
This study was called the Current Population Survey and it’s purpose was and it’s purpose was to gather information on gender differences(“Gender Pay 9”). The CPS survey was give to gather data but was unable to determine if it was worker choice or discrimination(“Gender Pay 9”). It was shortly that they conducted a GAO’s Quality Assurance Framework that happened to be relevant to their research that helped state their objective and define there conclusion(“Gender Pay9”). In 2004, the federal courts processed the work of over 1. million current and retired workers of Walmart to see the pay differences (“Pay Equity 3”).
CPS contained a massive amount of information about hourly wages with past and current years (“Gender Pay 9”). Over thirty years the U. S. workforce size has grown forty million, and women working has grown ten percent to reach 66 percent, as men dropped 8 percent and now is seventy seven percent(“Gender Pay 8”). Meanwhile researching equal pay and equal work it appears Costco. Walmart, and many other large corporate employers were being questioned about the pay they were giving out.
Costco was brought to court and questioned on their reason of pay towards women. Walmart was also brought to court for the same thing reason. “In 2007, the U. S. Supreme Court issued a decision between Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. , Inc, a case in which the female plaintiff alleged that past sex discrimination had resulted in lower pay,(“Pay Equity 3”) this continued through her 20 year career here but because she had not filed her claim soon enough they had to dismiss it and she didn’t receive any money for her loss of pay (“Pay Equity 3”).
Employers should be aware that the government looks for this unequal pay. Women, who have the same amount of experience as men aren’t getting paid at the same rate, these women also are equally trained and educated. This shouldn’t be happening in today’s society for the fact the society lived in today is suppose to be more accepting. Men are viewed as being more popular, valuable, and having higher powers than women and this is why men receive more promotions than women(“Promotions 2”).
The reason discrimination is involved in the equal pay, equal work is because of the significance it has to how some businesses pay their employees. “The sex and race discrimination in the workplace shows that discrimination in pay, hiring, and promotions continue to be a significant feature of the work life. ” (Discrimination 1″) The gender of a worker should not affect his or her pay, what should be considered is the working technique, their ability to work, and how productive they work with others.
Men and Women go to school to get higher educations so when they’re older they get better pay for there jobs. When men are paid more than women at a low paying job there isn’t a logical excuse for why unless they’ve been there longer. I believe that the experience behind a worker is a reason to pay someone more or less but it has to be determined by an existing mentor or employer. Also when you are at a job that you went to college for, you tend to know more about the new job you took or that you have a lot of experience behind you.
Not all women deserve to have unequal pay just because of their gender, women are just as qualified as men. Equal pay and equal rights is exactly what this world needs. People in today’s society sometimes do not notice the equal pay, equal work issue and even believe this isn’t an issue. This has been proven by different people that there does appear to be a wage gap. Once women and men make the same, it will diminish the gender wage gap, this will solve many world issues. Everyone deserves to be given the chance to make the same as someone else.
