It is a sad, but true fact, that women have lower salaries when compared to men. Even women who are in the same career and same position have smaller salaries than their male counterparts. Women, however, are making larger strides in entering male dominated management and male dominated fields. One study published in 2007 found that women who applied for jobs were not as likely to be hired by male managers if they tried to ask for more money, while men who asked for a higher salary where not affected.
There are some jobs that are dominated mostly by men and some jobs that are dominated mostly by women. The problem is that there is a gap in pay because jobs dominated by women are, on average, lower paying than jobs dominated by men. Some protest that there is discrimination by employers and sexist social expectations that cause women to be paid lower salaries and that many women are steered into lower paying occupations and men are steered into higher paying occupations. Oftentimes a woman will work for less than her male counterpart and the situation gets taken advantage of. Many women will not ask for a raise or increase in pay, where men are more apt to ask for such things.
Others argue that work by men is often seen as higher quality rather than equal or better work by women. Women have clearly been discriminated against in the past and it will continue to happen unless women stick together and demand equal pay for equal work. In 2007 it was estimated that women earn on average, 23 percent less than men in the workplace. Hillary Clinton pushed a “Paycheck Fairness Act”, which is a bill that would intensify anti-discrimination laws and create a negotiation skills training program for women and stop retaliation against employees who disclose their salaries. The “Equal Pay Act” requires that men and women be given equal pay for equal work in the same establishment. According to the Equal Pay Act, the jobs need not be identical, but they must be substantially equal. It is job content, not job titles, that determines whether jobs are substantially equal.
Even though this act exists and women have pushed for equal pay for a long time, a gap continues to exist. Perhaps men have higher salaries than women because of their field of expertise or their knowledge in a certain role. However, every woman should be given equal pay for equal work, doing the same exact job and having the same qualifications, otherwise it is discrimination.
