The Gender Wage Gap
haejean k
11/16/2020
In almost all career fields, equally qualified women are compensated at a lower pay than men who have the same profession. In my blog post I will discuss various lenses of the impact of this wage gap and how it affects women from all backgrounds. Working moms, single moms, and women of all races and ages deal with the consequences of the unjust system that decides to pay women less for the same, or many times more, work they do.
An article by Alisha Gupta from the New York TImes discusses how this wage gap may be affecting women even more in the current unprecedented COVID pandemic. She points out that hundreds of thousands of women have dropped out of the workforce over the course of the pandemic. From stay at home orders and children now transitioning to online schooling, women are taking on the full time at home responsibilities to support their children and family. Stefania Albanesi from the University of Pittsburgh explains that “The bigger the wage gap across spouses, the smaller the labor supply of the secondary earner, which is typically the wife.”
The US Labor Department confirmed what several economists such as Professor Albanesi have predicted. With the data from September, they saw a trend of thousands of women leaving their professional positions when the responsibilities at home became too great. WIth all their hard work and zeal to reach their level of profession, many had to unfortunately leave or were forced to leave. While there were many men who left their jobs as well, according to the National Women’s Law Center, “1.1 million people ages 20 and over who left the workforce (neither working nor looking for work) between August and September, over 800,000 were women”.
This overwhelming higher percentage of female professionals leaving may have been due to increased home responsibilities but also the chance that more women were laid off of their jobs than men in their same qualification level. Economics professor Matthias Soepke from Northwestern University touches on this point when he stated who “even decades after a recession, people who lost their jobs often have low earnings.”
Furthermore, Mara Gordon from The National Public Radio also discusses the inequality of the gender wage gap, specifically in the field of medicine. After physicians all undergo the same extensive process of 4 year undergraduate, 4 year medical school, intern years, minimum of 4 year, (many around 5-8 year) residency, and additional multiyear specialization, women doctors are compensated at a much lower rate than men.
Additionally, The New England Journal of Medicine conducted a study of how female primary care physicians spent more time conversing, treating and diagnosing patients than male physicians did. On top of women doctors spending more time with patients, they are paid less per hour. Another study by Athenahealth found how “Female primary care physicians spent about 15% more time with patients in each visit compared to male primary care physicians”. Other studies also note how patients who had met with female physicians rated the satisfaction of their experience at a higher rating than their satisfaction with a male physician. The unequal pay of women and men physicians who have met equal requirements and have the same qualifications has to change.
Ayanna Muhammad from the Cronkite News wrote about how the unequal wage pay between males and females are affected in female minories. The intersectionality of the wage gap leads “the size of the gap varying based on a woman’s job, family status and race”. In the United States, the average pay that women recieve is about 81 cents per 1 dollar a man makes. However, minority races such as asian, black, hispanic, and most other minorities can receive much less.
Muhammad found that the highest gap in wages was found “among janitors, building cleaners, maids and housekeepers”. What needs to occur is change. Government policy must be passed to equal the pay for women and men. The Paycheck Fairness Act and Equal Pay Act are steps that will help decrease the marginalization. However, the process is only passed by the House and was not passed by the Senate. There should be equal pay for men and women, regardless of gender, sex, or race.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/03/us/jobs-women-dropping-out-workforce-wage-gap-gender.html
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