Equal Pay/Equal Work

Organizational Communications

Venkat Mandadi

Lindsey Wilson College

Dr. Eric S. Harter

Topic

The Topic I would like to do a critical literature review about is “Equal Pay/Equal Work”.

Why the topic is interesting and important

Equal Pay/Equal Work has been a major talking point in recent years raising many political, socio-economic debates and protests across the globe. This topic needs to be dealt with utmost care without causing discrimination across genders. I would like discuss more on this topic to show that the concerns raised for discrimination in terms for gender equality in the work place environment is not warrantied. The solution to this is not monetary but requires more of a systemic change. It involves how men and women behave and take responsibilities in the society and also in the work environment. When we talk about gender equality in the US there’s this one statistic you see all the time: "Women earn 79 cents for every dollar men make". And while that statistic is factually correct, there’s a lot it doesn’t tell you. It simply compares the median wages of men and women who work full time (Kerr, Olivetti, Goldin, & Barth, 2017). It doesn’t tell you how the wage gap plays out for women with different educational levels or different ages, or who work in different fields. And you need that information if you want to start closing the gap.

Many researchers and surveys show that women take disproportionate share of household and child-rearing responsibilities when compared to men. These additional responsibilities sometimes seem to hurt women more than others. This is a key research finding from Claudia Goldin, an economist at Harvard who is a leading researcher on the gender wage gap. She shows this by exploring how gender pay gaps vary in different fields (Goldin, 2015).

There’s a fairly simple way to explain some of these differences—some jobs require specific hours. Others are more flexible. There will always be jobs where it’s important to work particular hours. But there are lots of jobs where hours could potentially become more flexible than they are right now. And research tells us the more we can make that work, the more the wage gap is going to shrink (Kerr et al., 2017).

Thesis Statement

Gender-based income gap is present in America today based on their gender. Solution to this issue is not just monetary equality but also requires a logical and systemic change in the work place environment and also in the society so we can shrink the wage gap.

References

Goldin, C. (2015). Hours Flexibility and the Gender Gap in Pay. Center for American Progress.

Kerr SP, Olivetti C, Barth E, Goldin C. (2017). The Expanding Gender Earnings Gap: Evidence from the LEHD-2000 Census. American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings. 107 (5): 110-114.