The gender wage gap can be considered as the difference in earnings between men and women. Since the 20th century, women’s labor force participation has increased substantially. Similar to men, women are working for longer hours while pursuing higher education in large numbers. However, this progress is still facing some issues, particularly an increase in the wage gap between men and women, particularly from most women of color (Denning et al. 2019). Although discrimination of pay based on such factor are illegal, the problem persists and has a significant impact on most women.
One of the major causes of the wage gap, in this case, is mainly occupational segregation which results in more men in higher-paid occupations unlike women, and vertical segregation which relates to fewer women in senior. Besides, other contributing factors include ineffective equal pay legislation, overall paid working hours for women, and in some cases difficulties in the ability of women to enter into the labor market (Cortés & Pan, 2019). Other important variables that help in explaining these issues include job tenure, economic activities and most importantly working time. Gender-specific factors, the overall structure of wage, and in some cases remuneration differences across industry sectors also play a critical role in influencing this gender pay gap.
Some current efforts to address the issue include legal regulations to prevent discrimination in pay and most importantly inclusion of women in some senior jobs. The primary goal, in this case, is to provide women with more opportunities to influence the current pay structure in different industries with the focus of understanding sacrifices and efforts made by most women, which are similar or better to those made by men. These efforts have however not been very effective although they have played a substantial role in addressing such problems.
References
Cortés, P., & Pan, J. (2019). When time binds: Substitutes for household production, returns to working long hours, and the skilled gender wage gap. Journal of Labor Economics, 37(2), 351-398.
Denning, J. T., Jacob, B. A., Lefgren, L. J., & Vom Lehn, C. (2019). The return to hours worked within and across occupations: implications for the gender wage gap. ILR Review, 00197939211045376.
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