Why do women still earn 77 cents to a man's dollar?

Question

How is it that women still make 77 cents to every dollar a man earns for the same position? What can we do to improve this and get equal wages? It seems absurd during these "modern" times to still be grappling with this. Please no sarcastic answers.

Answer 1

We may or may not be able to achieve this (no doubt noble) objective. There are two economic issues here.

One is options embedded in employment contracts. When you hire a woman, you essentially write her an option on a maternity leave. This is a valuable option (time to expiration is indefinitely long, plus it can be exercised multiple times), so you collect your premium by paying her less than you would pay a man in the same occupation.

The other is asymmetric information. There are women that may not be interested in exercising the above-mentioned option (they may already have children, or have no plans to have children, or be unable to have children due to health issues of their own or their spouse), but the employers are legally prohibited from even asking about any of it (which, in my opinion, is a good thing).

So, realistically, the only thing we can do as a society is to decrease the value of the maternity leave option to the employer. About the only way to do it known to the human race is separation of employment and healthcare. The system of employer-provided health insurance must be replaced with a national health plan funded out of tax revenues...

Answer 2

It's not 77 cents to a dollar for the "same position", it is that for the whole workforce. That is an important distinction.

The gap is primarily a result of the fact that men train and enter more demanding and higher-paying careers, and also riskier ones. Men college grads are engineers, women are in marketing; Engineers make more. For non college grads, men are auto mechanics and bridge builders; women are receptionists. The mechanics and bridge builders justifiable make more money. That's a generalization of course, but it explains the statistical difference.

Secondarily it results from women taking time off to have kids and then re-entering the workforce. If a man habitually dropped out of the labor force for years at a time, and then came back wanting to work only 30 hours a week and to get off at 3pm everyday, that man would make less money also (assuming he could find a job).

Lastly I expect some of the gap results form men asking for more money whereas a woman is less likely to. Sometimes you have to ask for a raise to get it, or negotiate for a higher starting pay.

In my working experience I've never seen a hint of any situation where anyone would've have even thought, "Hey she's female, we can pay her less!".

Answer 3

Such as paradiddle said, our population for women graduates has to rise. As long as men are in control of Fortune 500 companies, women are considered unreliable. They usually start with a company, only to drop out or take extensive time off to have a family. This is considered not good for production for a company. The women in the lead right now recognize this and put off having children until their 40's, if they have any at all. If women want to succeed and make the most of their earning potentials, starting their own businesses out of their houses is the only way a woman can have both career and family, without having to answer to the male society.

Answer 4

Perhaps because women have less sense (cents) in the first place!

Actually I am joking! Men and women should be treated equally both in the work place and out of it. In the UK we have laws preventing employers discriminating against sex, race, religion and disability.

Answer 5

sexism still runs rampant. but in the future it will definitely change because of the obvious college population of females ruling the majority.