The American Constitution guarantees protection against foreign invasion and on application of the executive or legislative against domestic violence; however, within our country, it does not mention anything regarding fair treatment of all citizens in the workforce despite the current inclusion of women. Women fulfilled their duty as American citizens by filling in jobs in the male-dominated workplace in the late 1920s as the men were overseas, and participation increased from high school employment to office jobs out of necessity. Since then, households have advanced to require two incomes to stay afloat, and the employment of women within jobs that were only populated by men was accepted as the utmost importance. However, the need to be compensated fairly became an issue later on. The pay gap that currently exists between two genders has become an injustice as it has existed for long enough, and is perpetuated by the treatment between workers based on gender as well as the wage difference itself becoming more and more noticeable as time and the American workforce progresses.
In the workplace, the difference of treatment between men and women is a contributor to the gap in pay. The stigmatism that men are the main contributors of supplying financial resources for the family unit was broken when women began to work in the late 1800s working minimal jobs. As the economy and population grows, familial needs expand everywhere, and a family typically cannot pay off debt accumulated during collegiate years living on one salary as higher educational degrees are required more often for employment. However, while that is ideal, the concept cannot be accomplished when the difference in gender treatment in the workplace is the main issue. The extent of contrast of conduct is differentiated by location, distribution, and the majority gender that is employed in the respective industry. For example, in research institutions, “87% of men at research institutions report fair treatment of women.. 42.6% of women strongly disagree with the statement that women are treated fairly at their institution” (Davies 245) and suggests that a portion of the underrepresentation of women about establishments may mirror a view of biased treatment. Another example is in professional sports- in women’s soccer, specifically. Men’s teams are generally paid more due to the amount of audiences that tune in to watch their games- however, the men do not receive a yearly salary, but “their win bonuses are a lot bigger, such that they can earn a lot more if they find even moderate success… their bonus for just making a World Cup roster which the men failed to do in 2018, is larger than the women’s teams annual salary” (Polumbo 2-3) meaning that due to the amount of people that tune in and whether they make the roster determines the big bucks. Women rise to the competition in the fact that the increase in performance pay jobs in “2004 rose to 32%”, however, “12% of establishments reported that they had introduced performance related pay in the last two years prevalence of performance pay for men and women, the first indication of whether women are underrepresented in performance pay contracts” (Manning) revealing a possible avenue for wage increase but became discriminatory as a result.
(Manning)
In the table, the most common form of performance pay contracts are “individual-based but there is little raw difference between men and women in the level of measures used to evaluate performance” (Manning 684), meaning as the pay decrease between the genders, it results in small differences in amounts of gender differential.
Within the pay gap itself, it is not a set standard yet; however, there is a noticeable monetary difference when it comes to being compensated fairly. On the national level, Obama addressed the fact that “enforcement of existing fair pay legislation was being hampered by a lack of solid data on compensation” (“Action and Inaction on Equal Pay” 2) and began the start for research on the exact differences between evidence as a qualification for discrimination. Some people, however, maintain a hardship against superiors and decide that “just as it takes mental effort to maintain a prejudice despite conflicting information, it also takes mental effort to suppress those negative feelings” (Tavris 86), therefore, one may have an issue with something but it is important to look at all the facts, like what is the exact difference, instead of getting caught up in the less important parts of an issue. For example, “median weekly earnings of full-time female workers ended up being $691 while men were earning $854 a week; resulting in a gender wage ratio of 80.9%”. (Hegewisch 1) In addition to that, the most common occupations for women have a “gender median ratio of 64.3% for full time work”, but common occupations for men “employ close to a third of male and one in seven female full-time workers.. with a wage gap of less than two percent” (Hegewisch 2), and result in male-dominated workplaces which have been shown to contribute to the wage gap. The top careers that women are in, which range from cashiers to registered nurses, don’t nearly make enough a week as top-dollar jobs earn that economically successful businesses currently reside in as those jobs range from $368 to $1,086 a week. (Hegewisch 1) If women can only become successful in careers that are not already dominated by a male employment body, there is no way that they can rise above to earn the same amount if they are barely even making the cut to enter that job. Women’s pay is substantially less when it comes to the same career after completing the same prerequisites that men completed to obtain the job.
The United States has a reputation for excellence as a developed and the most distinguished in the world; however, in light of not fixing issues created more than a century ago and not becoming predisposed to locate a solution, the gender discrimination continues. The wage gap comes as a result of mistreatment in the workplace and prejudices that have been in existence against women since the start, and try their best to keep the hourly and salaried rates low. Wage differences are certainly a result of discrimination in one way or another. Pay should be dealt with based on merit, and while there are many factors that go into wage discrimination, prejudices should be set aside as families are in need of money to survive. Women should be fairly compensated for as they are doing the same job that men are, and thus should be treated with respect because of the work they have put in.
