Wage Discrimination Against Women Essay Sample

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In the first place, it is necessary to explain what wage discrimination against women is. In the widest sense of the term, wage discrimination is understood to be unequal pay for equal work or differentiation of wages on specific grounds which do not relate to the employee's performance. In the socio-economic theory age, education, and experience are considered to be the main sources of wage inequality. However, even if all of the above mentioned factors are eliminated, pay gap continues to exist due to discrimination on the grounds of gender identity. Such disparity in pay between men and women is the result of discriminatory behavior of employers who can pay women less than men, although they may have the same qualifications and job experience.
It should be noted that wage discrimination against women in its purest form, implying women being paid less than men engaged in the same work under the same conditions and having the same experience, is quite difficult to distinguish. On the other side, there are evident cases of discrimination against women during the course of their recruitment or dismissal, in matters of promotion, career development, and professional advancement. It also stands to mention that there is unequal allocation and unfair employment practices of male and female professionals by sectors and occupational groups with different levels of pay.
What is even more interesting is the psychological aspects of wage discrimination. For historical reasons men were always considered to be daily breaders and only supporters of their families, while women were regarded as domestic goddesses whose responsibilities were limited to making the family's house a real home. Time passed by but the way of the world hasn't changed significantly. As a result, women are still being discriminated in the workplace, although present-day professional occupations for the most part do not require physical strength anymore.
It should be noted that the pay gap between male and female professionals tends to change with age. Difference in earnings of a young girl and a young man or young male and female graduates is significantly less than that of men and women of middle age.
As of today, in many regions of the world women that are more educated and experienced, who demonstrate better performance at workplace, receive less than men for their work. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), wage discrimination against women exists in all of the thirty-eight countries surveyed. What is even more surprising is the fact that the largest proportion of women being discriminated at the workplace and encountering disparity in pay is found in the United States.
The US Government, taking into consideration the injustice and disadvantageousness of wage discrimination, implemented a range of measures aimed at eliminating discrimination against women in the labor market. Those measure included the adoption of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which was the first act on equal pay in the history of the country. The succeeding attack on discrimination again women came to the United States with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the purpose of prohibiting discrimination due to race and religious reasons, as well as differences in gender and nationality.
Notwithstanding the adoption of any of these acts, wage discrimination against women in the US labor markets is still considered to be a common occurrence. For instance, the hourly wage of women in 1980's was on the average 30% lower than that of men. The reality is that at that time the disparity in pay between men and women was even greater than statistic data would demonstrate, as women used to work fewer hours per week than men. In 1984, women's wages accounted for only 65% ​​of men's wages.