Research Paper - Pnina Grossman

Pnina Grossman

Professor Nayanda Moore

English Composition

5/19/15

More than Just the Facts, Ma’am: the Gender Wage Gap in America

            In 2014, women who were full-time wage and salary workers earned a median weekly wage of $719. While this may seem a decent salary, men had a median weekly wage of $871. This means that women were earning 82.5% of what their male counterparts were earning, a substantial difference (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2014). This pervasive gap has existed ever since women joined the workforce, and while it has by and large been shrinking, it is hard to not acknowledge its current existence. Different factors have been cited in the reasons behind this gap, and to fully understand it, one must examine the family, occupation and timing choices that women make, as well as the sociological factors that impact those decisions.

To many, the obvious reason that women would earn less on average than men do is because women usually occupy the caregiver in a family. Interestingly, while approximately the same percentage of working people have children under 18, 37-38%, a larger percentage of working males had a spouse present in their household, 34% of working men as opposed to 24% of working women (see figure 1). This is likely due, in part, to the comparitively high amount of single parents who are women rather than men, 77% of single parents are mothers. However, the amount of working fathers from two-parent families, 85%, was still significantly higher than the amount of working mothers from two-parent families, 62%  (Casey, 1).

Figure 1

Percentages of men and women in the workforce by marital status, 2010

Source: "Median Weekly Earnings of Full-time Wage and Salary Workers by Detailed Occupation and Sex." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 15 Feb. 2015. Web. 18 May 2015. pp. 45-47

            Note: all figures in this document were made using Microsoft Excel

It should also be noted that in every marital category, men out-earn women. Additionally, men without a spouse present, who would presumably have to assume the role of caregiver in their family, with children between 6 and 17 still have a higher median weekly salary than women who have children of the same age and a spouse present by $55[1]. Additionally, amongst working women with a spouse present, those who had no children actually earned less than those with children (see figure 2).

Figure 2

Median Weekly Salary by Gender and Marital Status

Source: "Median Weekly Earnings of Full-time Wage and Salary Workers by Detailed Occupation and Sex." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 15 Feb. 2015. Web. 18 May 2015. pp. 45-47

As can be seen, it is not clear that the caregiver role that many women play in a family can account for the gender-based wage gap, though it may be responsible for some of it. In order to get a better sense of the effect of women being otherwise occupied, one can examine how men and women are compensated by the amount of hours they work.

One of the primary stated contributions to the wage gap is the fact that men tend to work more hours than women do, whether due to women’s “less competitive nature” or their role as caregiver in a family. This is, in fact, a correct assessment of men’s and women’s working habits. As can be seen in the figure 3, 77% of men work 40 to 60 or more hours a week, while only 61% of women do so.

Figure 3:

Women and men grouped by weekly hours worked

Source: "Median Weekly Earnings of Full-time Wage and Salary Workers by Detailed Occupation and Sex." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 15 Feb. 2015. Web. 18 May 2015. pp. 40-41

However, this does not account for the discrepancies amongst men and women who do work the same hours. The comparative median weekly salaries of men and women divided into categories based on how many hours a week they worked is a more effective way to see the wage gap. As expected, both men and women who work more hours per week earn a higher median weekly salary than those who work less hours per week. However, gender-based trends can be seen in the different work categories. Men who work part time (39 hours or less) have lower median salaries than women who work full time (40 hours or more) when compared to people of the other gender who work the same amount of hours as they do. More specifics can be seen in figure 4. As can be gleaned from the overall wage gap, the fact that women out-earn men in part time jobs does not make up for the fact that men out-earn women in full time jobs. This stems from two factors. Firstly, men out-earn women by a larger percentage than women out-earn men. While women’s earnings in full time jobs as a percentage of men’s earnings in jobs from the same work hour bracket are between 84 and 87% (with the exception of 45 to 48 hours, which is 92%), men’s earnings in part time jobs as a percentage of women’s earnings are between 92 and 97% (with the exceptions of 35 to 29 hours, which is 89% and 1 to 4 hours, which is 100 the same amongst both genders).

Figure 4

Median Weekly Salary by Gender and Hours Worked

Source: "Median Weekly Earnings of Full-time Wage and Salary Workers by Detailed Occupation and Sex." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 15 Feb. 2015. Web. 18 May 2015. pp. 40-41

Secondly, because the men are out-earning women in higher paying jobs, the percentage by which they are out-earning women is a larger monetary amount. This fact, combined with the previously mentioned fact that more men work full time jobs than women, accounts for some portion of the wage gap. However, it does not account for the gender-based pay discrepancies within people who work the same amount of hours. Additionally, it does not address the type of jobs worked by men and women and how they are compensated.

The gender-based discrepancies that exist within people who work the same amount of hours a week could be accounted for if, as is often claimed, women tend to work in lower paying and less competitive jobs than men do. As can be seen by comparing the median weekly earnings in different occupations, the two highest-paying categories of work are management, business, and financial operations occupations, in which there is a median weekly salary of $1063 when taking both sexes into account, and professional and related occupations, in which there is a median weekly salary of $1008 when both sexes are taken into account (figure 5).

Figure 5

Median Weekly Earnings by Occupation

Source: "Median Weekly Earnings of Full-time Wage and Salary Workers by Detailed Occupation and Sex." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 15 Feb. 2015. Web. 18 May 2015. pp. 7, 10-35

 Surprisingly for those to who claim such, 45% of women in the workforce work in these competitive fields, while only 35% of men in the workforce do (see figure 6).

Figure 6

Percentages of Women and Men in the Workforce by Major Occupation group

Source: "Median Weekly Earnings of Full-time Wage and Salary Workers by Detailed Occupation and Sex." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 15 Feb. 2015. Web. 18 May 2015. pp. 7, 10-35

However, in each of these categories men outearn women, making over 125% of what their female counterparts earn in all but one category. While this data broadly categorizes the pay grade for different occupation types, it does not take into account the scope of the different jobs inside these categories. Comparing the median weekly salaries earned by men and women in detailed jobs, however, does not fare much better. With the available data[2], one can see that for the same jobs, women earn between 62% and 102% of what men in those jobs earn. The most common occurance is that women will between 80% and 90% of what men earn, which happened in 44% of the jobs, and in only 2% of the jobs was women’s salary equal or greater than their male counterparts’. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2014) While this data does not take hours worked into account or include all jobs, the specificity of the jobs involved make it indicitive of a substantially problematic gap.

            The data could be interpreted to represent at least a partial explanantions of why women tend to earn less money than men: women tend to work less hours, and while they are in competive fields also, they might be in less competitive positions than men in those fields. While men in caregiver roles still earned more than women who wre presumably in these roles, there is still a possibility that this assumed role for women effects their salary. However, even if these factors are contributing to gender wage gap, it is important to examine the sociological factors behind them to understand what pushes women to make these decisions.

            The first issue that must be addressed is that of parental leave. While there are circumstances under which men occupy a caregiver role in a family, the fact that men do not go through preganancy or give birth makes it such that this caregiving is less likely to impact their careers than women’s careers. It should be recalled that the Preganancy Discrimination Act, which stated that an employer could not refuse to hire, deny a promotion to, or fire a woman on the basis that she is pregnant in addition to requiring an employer to treat a pregnant woman the same as they would treat any other employee who becomes temporarily sick or disabled, was only incoporated into the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in 1978, a mere 37 years ago. Additionally, this act did not provide job protection for women who needed to stay home to take care of the newborn, a protection only offered in 1993 with the passing of the Family and Medical Leave Act, and even this act only covered 60% of the labor force, due to its restrictions. Women who cannot afford to take off unpaid time to care for their newborns are stuck using sick time, vacation time, or simply going back to work. Currently, only 6 states in the US offer paid sick and maternity leave. Residents of the remaining 44 states are left at the mercy of their employers, 24% of which offer four or fewer weeks of paid maternity leave. Unfotunately, even in countries with long paid maternity leave, it negatively effects women’s career advancement (Cabeza et al, 80-81).

            Another factor is the level of competitiveness between men and women. While there is psychological evidence that men tend to over-estimate their own productivity and women under-estimate their own productivity, which could lead to men earning more than women (Palomino and Peyrache, 564), it is unclear that these studies themselves are not free of bias. Furthermore, these ideas could be connected to the societal status that men and women are assigned. An experiment in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization replicated previous experiments in which men and women had to perform tasks for rewards that had found men to be more competitive than men. However, when the experiment was replicated using a gender-neutral task, women showed just as much competitive ambition, and with a traditionally female task, they showed more. This led the team to believe that stereotypes play a large role in how men and women compete, a concept that can be applied to the workplace as well (Ekinci et al, 395). What’s more, while men’s perceptions of their deserved salaries are not impacted by their perceived social status, women’s tend to be, suggesting that women might feel they deserve less money because society is indicating such to them (Hogue et al, 573).

            The last factor that cannot be ignored is the infamous “glass ceiling.” While women make up 48% of the labor force, there only occupy an equal or higher number of management positions in seven out of the 50 biggest industries in the US (Cabeza et al, 74). Moreover, women if an industry is traditionally male-dominated, women have more trouble advancing in that industry (Cabeza et al, 76). In addition to this being problematic for the women currently in industry who are earning lower wages due to their lower positions, having more women in managerial positions could potentially lower the future wage gap (Huffman, 218). This makes the glass ceiling a huge factor in the current wage gap, and breaking it a potential solution.

            The data clearly points to the fact that the wage gap between genders exists in America. While the case can be made that this gap is present because of the career choices that women make, making such a case without considering the reasons that women as a whole make these choices is ignoring a large part of the equation. Arguably, if our society asks women to work less hours, it is still depriving them of money that they would have earned were they encouraged to work full time, and the same argument goes for staying out of competitive fields. Ultimately, this is an issue that will need to be examined in an interdisciplinary manner in order to come up with a comprehensive solution.

Works Cited:

Cabeza, Maria Florencia, Jennifer Barger Johnson, and Lee J. Tyner. "Glass Ceiling And Maternity Leave As Important Contributors To The Gender Wage Gap." Southern Journal Of Business & Ethics 3.(2011): 73-85. Business Source Complete. Web. 18 May 2015.

      This thoroughly researched article provided a mix of statistics and insights into how both maternity leave and the glass ceiling effect women’s employment opportunities. Comparing the maternity leave policies in different countries and what percentage of management positions are filled by women, they come to the conclusion that long maternity leaves prevent career growth. Additionally, they look at the different industries that seem to have a glass ceiling.

Casey, Tim. "Single Parent Snapshot 2014." Single Parent Snapshot 2014. Legal Momentum, 3 Mar. 2014. Web. 18 May 2015.

      A short list of statistics on single parenthood in the United States. This snapshot contains facts about single parenthood including who it effects and how it effects them.

Ekinci, Neslihan Arslan, et al. "Women can't jump? -- An experiment on competitive attitudes and stereotype threat." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 75.3 (2010): 395+. Academic OneFile. Web. 18 May 2015

      The main focus of this article was the experiment conducted by the authors. In response to many experiments that tested the relative competitiveness of men and women, these authors ran similar tests, but with gender neutral and traditionally feminine tasks instead of the traditionally masculine tasks used in other experiments. They found that the type of task effects the competitiveness of the subjects.

Hogue, Mary, Janice D. Yoder, and Steven B. Singleton. "The Gender Wage Gap: An Explanation Of Men's Elevated Wage Entitlement." Sex Roles 56.9/10 (2007): 573-579. Education Source. Web. 18 May 2015.

      The authors conducted an experiment to see how perception of social status effects confidence in the form of self-pay. They asked men and women to grade what their pay should be for a certain task, sometimes after saying that certain people (men/women) tend to be better at the task. While women were affected by these social cues, men, largely, were not.

Huffman, Matt L, mhuffman@uci.edu. "Organizations, Managers, And Wage Inequality." Sex Roles 68.3/4 (2013): 216-222. Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 18 May 2015.

      The author examines the effect of having women in management positions on upward career mobility for women. Using data gathered from many other studies, the author says that it is likely, but not conclusive, that having women in management positions allows a workplace to be more female friendly, thereby allowing more women to gain these powerful positions.

Palomino, Frederic, and Peyrache, Eloic-Anil. "Psychological Bias and Gender Wage Gap." Journal Of Economic Behavior & Organization 76.3 (2010): 563-73. Web. 18 May 2015.

      The authors examine the effect of men’s and women’s self-confidence on their wages. They conclude that men over-estimating their abilities actually results in them having higher paying jobs and earning more money.

"Median Weekly Earnings of Full-time Wage and Salary Workers by Detailed Occupation and Sex." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 15 Feb. 2015. Web. 18 May 2015.

      Collected statistics from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that are categorized by age, gender, weekly hours worked and many other categories to compare the effects of demographics on wage.

United States. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, July 2011. Web. 18 May 2015.

      List of detailed jobs in the United States and their median weekly salaries for men and women.

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[1] These demographics were compared, as opposed to those with children under 6, because the category of single parents with children under 6 was more likely to contain young single parents, which would artificially deflate their median weekly wages as compared to married parents with children of the same age.

[2] For accuracy, median weekly salaries could only be calculated for jobs in which over 50,000 people worked. The number of specific jobs that have over 50,000 female workers and over 50,000 male workers in 2014 was 117, and those were the jobs included in this data set.