A woman would have to work a full fifteen months to earn what a man in an equivalent role makes in a year. That’s because the wage gap is estimated to be 80 cents to the dollar. However, a recent study suggests that the pay gap could be even wider.
“The commonly used figure to describe the gender wage ratio — that a woman earns 80 cents for every dollar earned by a man — understates the pay inequality problem by leaving many women workers out of the picture,” authors Stephen J. Rose, a labour economist and fellow at the Urban Institute, and Heidi I. Hartmann, the founder of IWPR and an economist in residence at American University, argue in their report, titled “Still a Man’s Labour Market.”Specifically, it leaves out women who have dropped out of the labour force temporarily, often to care for family.
In other words: when you look at women’s careers over a fifteen-year period and include both years spent in paid employment and years spent providing unpaid caregiving work, women only earn 49 cents for every dollar a man earns.
Yes, that’s kind of like comparing apples and oranges — but that’s the point. People who take time out of the workforce to provide unpaid labour to family, no matter their gender, lose out on both potential income and potential career growth. Since women are more likely to take on this unpaid labour than men are, time spent out of the workforce not only reduces an individual woman’s earning potential but also contributes to the large-scale pay gap between men and women.
What about men who take time out for caregiving, or become unemployed? The study took that into account:
While men are also penalised for time out of the workforce, women’s earnings losses for time out are almost always greater than men’s.
Likewise:
Among women workers in this study, 43 per cent had at least one year with no earnings, while only 23 per cent of men did, indicating that being out of work for a year is still a common experience for women but unusual for men.
If you’re looking to close your own pay gap, we’ve got some tips below to help you negotiate a higher starting salary or approach your boss about a raise.
[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2018/08/start-thinking-about-why-you-deserve-a-raise-right-now/” thumb=”https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_ku-large/l3u5ia1pxhukmh4jjjz9.jpg” title=”Start Thinking About Why You Deserve A Raise Right Now” excerpt=”August 7 was Black Women’s Equal Pay Day — or the symbolic day that the average black woman reached pay equity with white men in the US this year — and Refinery29 ran a great piece on how three women discovered they were underpaid, and what they did about it.”]
Comments
6 responses to “Pay Gap Between Men And Women Might Be Worse Than Previously Calculated”
This has been proven many times to be false. Men earn more in some industries, women earn more in other industries. So many of these numbers claim they are working in equivalent roles when they really aren’t (no, an industrial metal worker working with dangerous machinery should not be paid the same as an accountant however you slice it). Some industries are male dominated, some a female dominated. Male professional athletes tend to be paid more than female, that’s true, but this is generally because they attract the bigger crowds and the bigger advertising dollars. Similarly though, female models earn significantly more than male models, because – once again, they pull in significantly more revenue. So even when you’re in the same industry with what seems to be an equivalent role, it’s not a black and white comparison.
At the end of the day though if women truly WERE being paid less than men for exactly the same role, with exactly the same experience and exactly the same qualifications, working exactly the same amount of hours (this is a big one that’s often overlooked), then employers would be hiring more women because it would be cheaper to do so. But they don’t.
Never mind the fact that, at least in Australia, there have actually been laws in place since 1969 that make it illegal for employers make that differentiation.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/how-would-you-close-the-gender-pay-gap/news-story/ae16514e8ba1c611e11b82885c3b9518
Well, no shit. Who would have thought that not going to work – regardless of your gender – would result in a loss of income and career growth?
Who funded this “study”?
Vox is known for pumping out this sort well disputed nonsense.
I would say people with agenda or those who tried to push an agenda forward.
In case you are thinking this article was blindly copied from a USA website, laws on “equal pay for equal work” in that country date back to 1963. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Pay_Act_of_1963
Considering the number of lawsuits [or class actions] that simply aren’t happening, I’d file this under “misleading bullshit”
So how about that Google study on it’s gender wage gap? Did you factor that in too?
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/04/technology/google-gender-pay-gap.amp.html
I have no reason to believe this ‘pay gap’ exists. As someone in the workforce, I receive an hourly wage for my work. My female colleagues are getting the exact same hourly wage. Sometimes, when I work more hours than them, I earn more money at the end of the week. And sometimes, when they work more hours than me, they earn more than me by the end of the week.
The ‘pay gap’ is nothing more than an aggregation that takes ALL full time men and women, averages them, and puts the numbers next to each other. There is no analysis. There is absolutely no consideration given for women choosing lower-paying jobs than men on average. Some very high paying jobs, for example working in sewerage and abattoirs, are worked by men. This ‘pay gap’ is nothing but a feminist agenda for power. “Look at how much more money men are making than us! Give us positions on the boards of directors and make us world leaders to correct it!” No. Correct it yourself, and go apply for a job at a sewerage works or abattoir if you wanna earn more. What, don’t like getting your hands dirty? That’s no one’s problem but your own.
Breaking news, taking unpaid time off work leads to lower income than those that remain in full time employment. Up next, old man yells at clouds.