Life and work

Know All About Gender Pay Gap

Know All About Gender Pay Gap

The gender pay gap is significant and the brunt is likely to be faced by every working woman. The’ gender pay gap’ is defined, as the term suggests, as the average difference between the remuneration paid to women and men, often for the same job. The big debate isn’t about whether there is a wage gap, it’s why it exists. Is it due to gender discrimination or is it due to the different choices made by men and women in the labor market? If you’re curious to find out what triggers the wage gap and why it’s important to you, continue reading.

Causes Of The Gender Pay Gap?

Full-time workers around the world have a gender pay gap. Yet, country by country, the size of the gap varies dramatically. In turn, the wage gap arises from a number of choices faced and rendered by individuals in their professional life, including schooling, jobs, industry, company size, additional work-time, and job training. These are, indeed, the gender pay gap’s four root causes:

1. The highest paid jobs are dominated by men

In all the Fortune 500 firms, there are only 24 women CEOs. This number amounts to just under 5% of the total list. It is noticed that a fraction of what their male counterparts earn is still being paid by female CEOs. High-paid industries such as engineering and finance are less than 25% female.

2. Women earn far less than men in male-dominated fields

Women make up only 11 percent of the highest paid jobs in corporate America. According to a new survey carried out by Doximity, a social networking platform for health care professionals, on 65,000 doctors, 27.7% less than their male peers in 2017.

3. Men still gain more in women-dominated fields

In some of the largest female-dominated professions (such as nursing, childcare, and teaching) women earn less than men. Men make up only 2.5% of all pre-school and nursery teachers, but on average they earn 13% more.

4. Motherhood Penalty

The word ‘ motherhood penalty’ was coined by sociologists who claim that working mothers face systemic disadvantages in terms of pay, benefits and perceived success in the workforce relative to childless women. Women face a “motherhood penalty” of 4 percent of income for each child they have, according to the American Sociological Review.

What Is The ‘Gender Pay Gap’ & ‘Equal Pay’?

While both ‘ gender pay gap ‘ and ‘ equal pay ‘ address the disparity in women’s workplace pay encounters, they are two different concepts. The main difference between the two is as follows:

Equal Pay

The idea of non-discrimination in worker’s compensation is ‘ equal pay. ‘ The definition of labor rights claims that for doing the same job, men and women should be paid the same amount of money.

Know All About Gender Pay Gap

Image Source – BING

Gender Pay Gap

Gender pay gap’ is the difference between men and women’s average hourly earnings across all professions.

The wage gap is a web of interwoven factors that is extremely complex. Wage differences are sometimes unavoidable, but massive pay gaps can become a problem not only for you as a person but for the whole society. It’s not just the right thing for companies to do to close the gender pay gap, but also the smart thing to do.

Steps To Decrease The Gender Pay Gap

Here are a few measures to reduce the gender pay gap and help women break the glass ceiling.

1. Ensure salary transparency

The idea of accountability does not have to automatically give one the right to know what someone else receives. Nonetheless, employees should have the right to know how the calculations were made. Organizations should follow a strictly meritocratic system to maximize justice, opportunities, and equity.

2. Ensure Fair Promotions And Hiring

Companies can train managers in their decision-making to understand the impact of gender bias. It will help to narrow the wage gap by setting clear and consistent standards to eliminate bias in hiring decisions and performance reviews.

3. Women should have the same opportunities for progress

It is necessary for women to have equal access to career-accelerating opportunities. Companies need to actively encourage women to take more opportunities and search for opportunities they want.

4. Treat the gap in incomes, as a problem for human rights

Closing the wage gap is not a priority in both employer and public policy activities, but it needs to change. As stated in the preamble to the constitution of the International Labor Organization. Women are entitled to equal pay for work of equal value and this principle must be encouraged by more companies.

If we want to bring about change, we must first collectively understand the true nature of the threat posed to each of us by the gender pay gap. Because, here’s the thing: the gap in wages is an ugly, persistent truth, and it’s really about time we started to level the play between working men and women.

Also Read: How To Maintain Work-Life Balance After Having Kids?

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