Gender Pay Gap -- Summary

Reserve Reading
Thomas J. Billitteri

There is a gender pay gap, of some kind, for some reason, that may or may not be disappearing. The research is too controversial for a reader to be able to draw an answer without an opinion. Any conclusion on the wage gap is as much an opinion as it is an answer based on research. What is known, is that the wage gap has dramatically decreased since women first dramatically entered the work force in around the 1850's. It continued to decrease, most dramatically during war eras when men were fighting, leaving jobs and the economy in the hands of the women.

Hillary Clinton has been working to pass a bill to create a law on comparable worth, a very controversial issue that has already been struck down once. It argues that equal pay for equal work is a more efficient way of decreasing wage discrimination than the same pay for the same job. Two different jobs could actually involve the same amount of work, just be titled differently and therefore if a woman was in one and a man in the other she could be making less money.

An argument against comparable worth is that it would bring the government into business with a force and would therefore take control out of the private sector. It would also tell women that the government doesn't believe that they can make gains in the jobs where they are. This is against the pro-comparable worth argument that some wage discrimination is based on historical views on women's jobs versus men's jobs. Women were always paid less so the jobs they usually take are paid less.