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Do Gender Wage Gaps Still Exist?

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The Gender Handicap

You have probably heard that women earn less than men in the work place. However, what was most likely not made clear was that the bulk of the wage gap is not due to men and women being paid differently for the same job. The difference in salaries for the same jobs, qualifications, etc, only make up for a four cents per dollar difference compared to male salaries [1] (i.e., on average, women earn $0.96 per $1.00 earned by men). This is much smaller than the 23-24 cents per dollar that is often quoted, but it still is not fair. This should have been solved decades ago by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned employment discrimination for many things, including sex [2]. This includes differences in wages due to a person's sex. The ever apparent gender wage gap has been repeatedly addressed, especially during the Obama administration, and corporations have continued to implement changes in their wage practices. Obviously, though, the current four cents per dollar still needs to be addressed. What is the cause of the other portion of the wage gap, the other 20 cents?

Graduation vs Employment

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), during the 2013-2014 academic year, roughly 41-percent of college graduates were male and the other 59-percent were female [3]. In a 2016 NCES report on the employment of college graduates, 89-percent of male graduates and 87-percent of female graduates were able to find gainful employment [4]. Note, in data analysis, 89-percent and 87-percent are considered approximately equal due to standard deviations in data. According to employment data, men and women are given equal chances when searching for new employment positions. So when is the bulk of the wage gap occurring?

Leadership Gap

According to a 2016 report by PayScale.com, the wage gap is occurring further into employment. Men are 85-percent more likely than women to be promoted to executive positions mid-career and 171-percent more likely to be promoted to those positions late in their career [5]. According to an article by Dina Medland in Forbes magazine, only 24-percent of global senior business roles in 2016 were held by women. Although this was a 2-percent increase from 2015, global firms with no women in senior positions increased from 32-percent in 2015 to 33-percent in 2016 [6].

An Insufficient Conclusion

We know where the gap is occurring and you could certainly find opinionated causes of the lack  of senior positions among women, but with few reputable sources to turn opinion to fact. Why do you think women are less likely to get a senior position? Are they leaving the career field early to start a family? Are they being discriminated against? Let me know in the comments section below!



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