The Main Reason That Women Are Paid Less Than Men free essay sample

More than 2,000 years ago the Greek philosopher Plato wrote†¦ â€Å"Nothing can be more absurd than the practice that prevails in our country of men and women not following the same pursuits with all their strengths and with one mind, for thus, the state instead of being whole is reduced to half. †(Plato, The Laws) There is a nationwide debate as to whether or not women are paid less than men as a result of gender discrimination in the workforce. It is our position that gender discrimination is in fact the main reason women are paid less than men, and we will defend our position with appropriate statistics and facts. This is no doubt a sensitive issue and there are a lot of different views and opinions throughout the world. It is certain that this topic is influenced by a wide range of factors and is also affected by geographical effects. Furthermore, if we want to hold the view that gender discrimination is largely responsible for differences in wage between men and woman, we have to concentrate on a specific market. In this case, on the United States, we should look on the hypothesis from different perspectives. To effectively defend our position, it is beneficial to break down our position into two parts. First, we have to prove that a gender pay gap in the United States actually exists. If we want to prove a crowding hypothesis we not only have to support this theory by referring to appropriate statistics, studies, and research, but also the existence of this hypothesis itself. Human resource managers are largely responsible for compensating employees, which would ultimately affect the pay gap between men and women. Human resource managers were asked if they think there actually is a gender pay gap among America’s companies, and if it existed inside there own organization. According to a recent study published by the Institute of Management Administration in New York, they do in fact believe in this gap. Overall 89. 4 percent of the interviewed managers think that there is a wage differential between the genders at other companies. What is surprising about this data is that only 17. 7 percent of them added their own company to this group (â€Å"How Widespread Is the Gender Pay Gap†, 006, p. 1). It seems that there is a real glass ceiling effect in America’s industry. Everyone talks about it but very few admit to having such a barrier in their own organization. However, as expected, there are further differences among the various industries and in regional trends. For instance, the study found that 100 percent of the respondents in the educational sector believe there is a w age differential while almost 18 percent in the non-profit industry are not committed to this thesis. The regional differences are smaller (p. ) but for sure they would gain in importance if we looked outside of America. So our position is that we can state that there generally exists the perception of a gender-based pay gap, however, it observably differs from region to region and industry to industry. As mentioned earlier, there is a second part to our position which has to be considered, whether or not the pay gap is a result of gender discrimination. In our position it is quite clear that gender discrimination is the main factor influencing the pay gap and it emanates from the mentioned studies. To represent valid facts, the research had to provide a consistent basis, which sorted the wage and salary data out of all objective influences. That means from an objective view, the compared earnings are based on persons with the same characteristics, skills, and living conditions. Thus there are only subjective reasons left, which may cause this gender-based pay gap among men and women in the economic environment, and that means gender discrimination. On this account, in the discussion below, we will try to analyze the various studies we found and to count out all the possible objective reasons that might cause a legitimate pay gap among gender. Why is this issue important to organizations? One reason for organizations to pay men and women equally for the same amount of work is to avoid any legal ramifications which can lead to severe financial penalties. Another important reason to avoid discriminating against women is that discrimination can draw negative publicity for the company, leading to poor performance in the workplace and potential loss of sales. Companies that do not follow the Equal Pay Act are stalling the already slow process for women’s equality in the United States. Organizations need to help accelerate the process and they may be rewarded and receive positive publicity which in turn can improve company morale and customer satisfaction. Furthermore, this good reputation makes a company also more attractive for women of the academic labor market and might enable the organization to gain a sustainable competitive advantage within the industry by obtaining high-quality female human resources. It also might lead to better relationships to other stakeholders such as state and government, creditors or suppliers. For instance, it is quite enough to look on the recent case of the class action of female employees against Wal-Mart (Christie, J. , â€Å"Wal-Mart Faces Historic Sex Bias Case†, 2007). This lawsuit was published in numerous newspapers and other media. Can you imagine how that will affect the company’s reputation in the future? Possibly a lot of women will be in doubt about the world’s largest retail business and choose rather another company for their career-entry or advancement. Therefore it is maybe not the fine which Wal-Mart is currently worrying about, but particularly the damage to its image that will affect the organization throughout the coming years. The equal pay dilemma has been an issue in this country dating back as early as the 1880’s. During World War I and World War II the concept of equal pay became a matter of policy with limited practice. Many women were called upon to replace male factory workers who had been sent to the war which became a catalyst for the subject. A national debate arose as to whether or not the policies of equal pay should continue to be practiced during peacetime. The main advocate of these equal pay policies in the U. S. was the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor. However these policies soon died as the war ended and the major male workforce came back from overseas. The topic of equal pay has been thoroughly investigated and well documented throughout the years and all the information leads to the same conclusion that equal pay does not exist. Years of protest for women’s equal rights prompted the slogan â€Å"equal pay for equal work† which became very appealing throughout the nation. This slogan, which cried out for equality, helped gain support from labor parties, unions, woman’s organizations, and government ministries. However, defining these terms such as equal pay and equal work is a difficult task in itself. The problem with equal pay lays in the fact that a very small percentage of women work on the same job as well as performing the same work and under the same conditions as their male colleagues. Furthermore, equal work is also an elusive term and is difficult to define. Defining what â€Å"equal† should measure has been the main difficulties of equal pay advocates. Equal could be measured in many different ways: amount of a product, value of a product, value of the work to the employer, work done under similar conditions, or should it represent equal effort or sacrifice? The problems of definition and of measurement both of equal pay and of equal work have provided comfort for the opponents of equal pay and refuge for the undecided. This issue is controversial because it is a topic which actually should not exist. Everyone knows about it but nobody is really aware of the fact that this is happening now in their direct environment and in their own company. Another reason for the conflicting opinions might be the consistency of the data and statistics gained by national research. This topic is very complex and influenced by innumerable variables so that it is difficult for those research institutes to cut down the determining factors only on â€Å"gender discrimination†. Thus, leaves a lot of room for skepticism and disagreements. The reason that this issue is really controversial proves again in the recent publication of possibly the biggest sexual discrimination case in U. S. history advanced against Wal-Mart on Tuesday the 6th of February. The article published by Reuters in the New York Times reported that â€Å"a top court ruled that more than a million women could join a suit charging bias in pay and promotions† (Christie, J. , â€Å"Wal-Mart Faces Historic Sex Bias Case†, 2007). This lawsuit will probably constitute another longsome dispute in the US justice department about the topic of gender discrimination in the workforce and if it is the main reason for the pay gap between men and women in the United States. Discussion For our first argument, we will discuss the glass ceiling effect and position segregation concerning women in the United States. One theory of gender discrimination in the workforce constitutes the existence of a glass ceiling effect that causes a pay gap among genders. This theory was proven by Alkadry and Tower, who mainly tried to answer the following questions regarding the glass ceiling by surveying four groups of public procurement professionals online: â€Å"Are women truly concentrated in the lower levels or positions of organizations? Why are they entering into these lower levels or positions and not elsewhere? And, why do women who enter lower-level positions not advance to higher positions within their organizations?