Good Economics Of Race And Gender Essay Example

Race and gender gap in the employment market continue to be persistent. Even though the wage gap between blacks and whites seemed to converge quickly in the past, the gap has now stagnated for several years (Altonji and Blank 3143). The wage gap between Hispanic and white has increased among both females and males. On the contrary, the wage gap between genders does not show change during the 60’s and 70’s. The wage gap made visible the differences in employment market outcomes by gender and race. Considerable difference in employment market involvement, occupational location, unemployment rates, job characteristics, non-wage compensation, and job mobility exist by both race and gender (Altonji and Blank 3143).
After the promulgation of The Equal Pay Act in 1963, approximately 36% of women were in the labor market, and their average wage was approximately 58% of the men’s income (Altonji and Blank 3144). Thirty-five years later, the gap reduced, thus resulting in the employment of 55% of women, and their average earnings are currently 75% of men’s earnings (Altonji and Blank 3144). These statistics merely shows that the gap has reduced, yet it continues to persist and implicates discrimination in the labor market.
For couples with children, working women has now become central. Although men’s income falters, the family’s share of income increases steadily. White women, in particular, have experienced increased in their earnings compared to men. However, following the decline in the 60’s, wage gaps continued to widen among racial groups. Notwithstanding the increase in income among black men, there was little improvement made after twenty-five years. During the recent years, both black and white men exhibited a decrease in their median weekly income. Hispanic men demonstrate the most robust decline in wage; however, some of this is attributed to immigration, which brought an increased in the number of population of many less-skilled men of Hispanic origin (Elmelech and Lu 157). Among white women, wages have increased steadily. Wages of Black women were almost at par with white women in the 70s, but later diverged gain as evidence by the little growth in income experienced by black women. Hispanic women were doing worse in the employment market due to the shifts in the employment force composition by immigration. There was a large difference in the annual earnings, suggesting that weekly and hourly works are lower among females and lower minorities. On the other hand, white men earned more per hour and worked more weeks annually and more hours weekly. Moreover, white men are more likely to get employed than men of different racial and ethnic origin. On the other hand, Blacks have twice the rate of unemployment of whites. Women’s cyclical rate of unemployment is more constant than men.
Unemployment rates and wages are the most affected areas by the overall employment force participation rates. There are several factors that are believed to contribute the gender differences in the employment market (Azmat 4). These factors include preferences, discrimination, and productivity (Azmat 4). Gender discrimination in the employment market is the situation in which men and women who are equally productive are not given the same form of rewards, making it essential to appropriately measure productivity differences so as to pin down the residual in discrimination (Azmat 8). The most common approach includes decomposing wage between women and men into an explained gap, motivated by gender differences and at time's job characteristics. While the presence of an unexplained gap continues and remains consistent with discrimination, such measure also suffers from two forms of drawbacks. First is the inevitable lack of data on a number of determinants of a productivity, which are valued and observed by employers. Hence, the unexplained gap is tainted by the unobserved variances in productivity, and whether it offers a downward or upward bias of the real extent of discrimination varies with the differences. Second, if the investment in the pre-labor market in human capital is influenced by expectations of future discrimination, part of the effect of discrimination is captivated by productivity differences, and the outcome of inexplicable gap would undervalue the real extent of discrimination.
There are various reasons to consider employment force involvement as a significant indicator of well-being among women. First, the current trend shows that more women are becoming the head of the families, and there has been an increased in the number of a single woman in the households. Hence, the female population’s well-being is greatly reliant on the earnings and work. Moreover, for a lot of married couples, the market labor of wives has been significant in preventing poverty and performs a crucial role in recognizing the extent inequality in the family income. Family bargaining models suggest that in families with married couples, the income and work of women are likely to have an impact on the resources distribution within marriage and the procedures of decision making within the household. Lastly, changes in the participation in the employment market affect the average experience of women in the labor market. This serves as a significant determinant of the gender pay gap. Discrimination tends to impose real costs on the nation’s economy, thus, preventing the country from completely enjoying the talents of workers and unlawfully restricting the wage and employment prospects for the entire classes of individuals.

Works Cited

Altonji, Joseph, and Rebecca Blank. 'Handbook Of Labor Economics: Chapter 48 - Race And Gender In The Labor Market'. Institute for Policy Research and Department of Economics 3 (1999): n. pag. Print.
Azmat, Ghazala, and Barbara Petrongolo. 'Gender And The Labor Market: What Have We Learned From Field And Lab Experiments?'. Labour Economics 30 (2014): 32-40. Web.
Elmelech, Yuval, and Hsien-Hen Lu. 'Race, Ethnicity, And The Gender Poverty Gap'. Social Science Research 33.1 (2004): 158-182. Web.