Introduction
Although the middle class has finally seen a long anticipated increase in pay, the wage gap among American women and other races still persists today. As history has shown, males have dominated the workforce taking in a substantial difference of pay than women and other races. Women working full time made about 80 cents for every dollar that men made last year, according to the data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau (Disis, 2016). Although the wage gap has a significant impact on the individual it also has an effect on our entire economy. Throughout this essay I will discuss the causes of wage differentiates, discrimination in the workforce, and challenge our economy to finally close the gap.
Wage Gap
In the American workforce average annual wages in occupations vary yearly. For instance, let’s say a new female surgeon in Rhode Island may have earned 200,000 in 2015 but a new male surgeon in Arkansas earned an annual income of 230,000. These surgeons experienced a concept referred to as wage differentials. Wage differentials are defined as the difference between the wage received by one worker or group of …show more content…
Occupational segregation is the crowding of women or minorities into less desirable, lower paying occupations. This concept then allows white males to obtain the higher paying jobs. Today in 2016 I hope our government takes the initiative to close the wage gap. By closing the gap, our economy could in return benefit from equal pay across the nation. It could even mean the difference of people living above or below the poverty line. According to the census data 14.2% of women ages 18 to 64 were living in poverty, compared with the 10.5% of men in that age range (Disis, 2016). If our government could accommodate equal pay, then the poverty line would decrease creating more economic growth in the long
Although the middle class has finally seen a long anticipated increase in pay, the wage gap among American women and other races still persists today. As history has shown, males have dominated the workforce taking in a substantial difference of pay than women and other races. Women working full time made about 80 cents for every dollar that men made last year, according to the data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau (Disis, 2016). Although the wage gap has a significant impact on the individual it also has an effect on our entire economy. Throughout this essay I will discuss the causes of wage differentiates, discrimination in the workforce, and challenge our economy to finally close the gap.
Wage Gap
In the American workforce average annual wages in occupations vary yearly. For instance, let’s say a new female surgeon in Rhode Island may have earned 200,000 in 2015 but a new male surgeon in Arkansas earned an annual income of 230,000. These surgeons experienced a concept referred to as wage differentials. Wage differentials are defined as the difference between the wage received by one worker or group of …show more content…
Occupational segregation is the crowding of women or minorities into less desirable, lower paying occupations. This concept then allows white males to obtain the higher paying jobs. Today in 2016 I hope our government takes the initiative to close the wage gap. By closing the gap, our economy could in return benefit from equal pay across the nation. It could even mean the difference of people living above or below the poverty line. According to the census data 14.2% of women ages 18 to 64 were living in poverty, compared with the 10.5% of men in that age range (Disis, 2016). If our government could accommodate equal pay, then the poverty line would decrease creating more economic growth in the long