add

Running Head: DISCRIMINATION OF WAGES BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN 1

DISCRIMINATION OF WAGES BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN 6

Discrimination of Wages between Men and Women

Student’s Name(s)

Institutional Affiliation(s)

Discrimination of Wages between Men and Women

According to the Institute for women policy research, “in 2018, female full-time, year-round workers made only 82 cents for every dollar earned by men, a gender wage gap of 18 percent.” This particular study demonstrates the comprehension of the extent of pay inequality in various occupations. The analysis established that women’s earnings for 15 years represent just half of the men’s earning in equal duration. Averagely, women earn less than their male counterparts in almost all occupations. Therefore, this paper establishes the deliberate gender discrimination in remuneration as a significant feature of the labor market.

Generally, the wages discrimination is multi-faceted in the dimension that, irrespective of women’s qualifications the jobs done by women have low remuneration that the jobs predominantly executed by men averagely. Primarily, there are dominant strides by the women shifting to occupation and employment that have been mostly performed by men. However, there is still are a more substantial variance on and little progress in the gender integration of jobs. For instance, in construction, there has existed no development to integrate all genders in operations (Institute for Women's Policy Research, 2017). Therefore, it is due to the increased persistence in occupational segregation that there is no significant step in bridging the wage gap. However, increased pay inequality has widely demonstrated economic consequences to the women-led families and the national economy at large. Comparatively, an analysis by this Institute establishes that an equal pay among all genders it would reduce poverty levels among the working women and their households by more than 50 per cent and put in more than $513billion on the overall national economy (Institute for Women's Policy Research, 2017).

Global researches have established that an explanation of the broader gender pay gap remains uncertain even after considering the difference between workers and workplace features. Therefore, it is common to attribute labor market discrimination to productivity differences arising from the unidentifiable worker and workplace features. Initially, it is believed that wage discrimination is viewed to be rooted in the employers’ preconception against the female gender to impose discriminative measures due to the imperfect labor markets. Contrary to the above argument, researches seek to examine whether gender discrimination would result to profit maximization considering the imperfect labor market. It is deduced that for this approach to take effect, the market should be equally imperfectly competitive, where the employer has the wage-setting power over their employees.

For instance, where a group of workers have varying ideologies over-sensitivity to the wages differences in the labor market by a particular employer, the employer can take advantage by discriminating the fewer sensitivity employees (non-responsive employees) to maximize their profits. This kind of discrimination is the “monopsonistic” wage discrimination or “Robinsonian discrimination.” Employers take advantage of applying monopsony power over less wage responsive workers. Robinson establishes that women are limitedly surged by wages when offering labor to a particular employer compared to their male counterparts who have payments as their primary consideration before supplying work (Hirsch, 2016). Therefore, employers with monopsony power over female employees can increase their profits by remunerating them less. Thus, I can deduce that monopsonistic wage discrimination clearly explains the persistent gender wage differential despite the accounts for productivity. Comparatively, the monopsonistic wage discrimination poses a long-term impact and threat in the journey to solve the gender pay gap since it is based on the labor market responsiveness rather than employers prejudice upon women.

In the report by Institute for women’s policy research “Five Ways to Win an Argument about the Gender Wage Gap,” establishes that the 82 per cent wage ratio in the United States (many Americans consider it a myth and misleading) is a very significant and accurate measure of wage inequalities in the labor market by reflecting several factors, primarily discriminative remuneration. Extensively the justification for the gender pay variation and discrimination against the women is based on the women’s disproportionate division of time for the family care compared to their male counterparts. Additionally, the argument further states women are more likely to take time off work when they have children in comparison to men. However, in contrast, no evidence can postulate that being a mother renders women less efficient and less productive in their occupations.

Studies reveal that human capital plays a significant role in the gender wages gap. Women have invested in increasing human capital over time, a phenomenon that seeks to explain the current possible convergence between the men and women wages. With enhanced experience and education, women are likely to take part in part-time jobs than men. Additionally, part-time works are different from full-time employment. Part-time jobs there is less accumulation of experience that negatively affects the progressive career development with human capital. The underlying assumption in this approach is that women have an advantage outside the labor market compared to men, and therefore they tend to spend fewer years in the labor market. Thus, the females will tend to enter into occupations with the low venture on the job training but with initial high remuneration and men tend to take advantage of occupations with high investment on the job training with low initial payment but with steep wage profiles (Kunze, 2018). However, this theory has little support. Thus its truthfulness is in doubt. Therefore, men and women wages are universal during the entry period in the labor market; the differences in arises on evolution through the career.

In conclusion, the justification for the gender wages gap remains still an issue since there is still no valid establishment as to why should same work done have a varied pay on the gender basis. However, statistical studies demonstrate a significant difference between various countries and sectors on the men and women wages convergence. In contrast, the reviews lack quantitative facts to justify the main drivers of the wages discrimination between men and women.

References

Hirsch, B. (2016). Gender wage discrimination. IZA World of Labor.

Institute for Women's Policy Research (2017). Employment, education & economic change. Pay equity & discrimination. https://iwpr.org/issue/employment-education-economic-change/pay-equity-discrimination/

Kunze, A. (2018). The gender wage gap in developed countries. The Oxford Handbook of Women and the Economy, 369.