The gender pay gap has been a subject of interest in the last few years. There have been more people talking about it and raising awareness about this social issue. We have high-profile media personalities, celebrities, athletes, etc., talking about the pay gap problem. This is a problem that affects all women from different walks of life. Such wage disparity is a major concern for us.

In the last few years, more people have preferred solutions to the wage gap between men and women, and more organizations are willing to do better due to the awareness raised about it. However, the fact remains that this problem persists, and almost all women are affected by it. They have to work harder and for much longer to raise enough money to take care of themselves and their needs.

This leads to a higher level of financial stability and more stress for them. 

There is still a long way to go to solve this problem. Raising awareness is one part of it, but that’s not all there is to it. Many people only know about the existence of the gender pay gap, but they don’t know how serious it is. So, they are not doing enough to combat it. In this article, it is our honest try to point out all your need to know about gender pay gap and its related things. Hope it make you understand that how serious the problem is. 

1. The median earnings for women were 81% of the men’s earnings as of 2018.

Back in 1979, women were only earning about 62% of the men’s median earnings. This improved as the 20th century was ending. The increase was steady over the years until the start of the 21st century. According to a study by Ascent on the pay gap, the increase in women’s median earning stopped and became stagnated around 2004. This wage gap statistics is an eye opener.

However, the awareness raised since then saw the median earnings for women increase to as much as 83% in 2014. There has not been much progress since then. It moved backward to 81% as of 2018.  

2. Having higher educational qualifications doesn’t improve gender pay gap.

It is a normal phenomenon that people get paid more when they have higher educational qualifications. However, it does not close the gender pay gap for women. According to a publication at a paper writing service, women that have master’s degree still get less pay than a man with the same degree. To make it worse, women who have doctorate don’t earn as much as men that have master’s degree and women that have master’s degree don’t earn as much as men with bachelor’s degrees. Such wage disparity is shame to our society.

Also, being a specialist in a field does not make a difference for women. Even in highly esteemed areas, such as medicine, women still make considerably lesser than their male counterparts with the same specialization. 

The study from Ascent also confirms this wage gap between men and women. The set of women that did best are those with associate degrees or college degrees, and they earn 70% of what the males earn as of 2017. The ones that did worst are the women that didn’t complete their high school education. The biggest surprise is that women at the top of the educational pyramid are doing a little worse than those in the middle. Women with professional degrees or graduate degrees earn only 68% of men with the same qualification, and women with bachelor’s degrees earned 69% of the men’s earnings. 

3. The pay gap cuts across all professions.

Women across different fields and professions (if not all) are not paid the same amount as males in the same field. The gender pay gap in Hollywood is as severe as in sports or the architecture industry. Recent research by the National Statistics Office shows that women in the architecture industry get paid 25% less than males. There are various strategies to get promotion in desired industries. But, it also face men women disparity regarding increment. 

Also, England’s women’s football team is paid about 20,000 pounds per year while male footballers in the premier league earn more than 1.6 million pounds per year. 

4. The wage pay gap is not performance-related.

This point is for people who would love to argue that men can perform better than women in different fields. That is why they are paid considerably more. This is far from the truth. The pay gap is gender-related, and it is proven even in football. For instance, the US women’s national team won the women’s world cup and earned just $2 million.

Meanwhile, the US men’s national team lost out in the first round of the men’s world cup and got $8 million. 

5. Married women are the most affected ones.

According to an essay writer at essay reviews, the most affected party is the married woman. Many may argue that married women are most affected by the gender pay gap because they may not spend as much time tending to their careers as they watch for their children. This is an explanation for it, but it is not all that there is to it. Women that are married with children are paid 79% of what married men with children are paid. Interestingly, married women without children are paid 78% of what married men without children are paying. So, the problem is not about the woman tending to her children. 

However, women that are unmarried and didn’t have any children are the ones that fared best, earning about 94% of the earnings for unmarried men without kids. These gender pay gap statistics gives a broad understanding of how things works in society.

It is clear that the gender gap still exists, whether for married and unmarried women, with or without children, and things may get worse for these women if nothing is done to curb the problem.

Conclusion:

I hope that this case study and research article of what is gender pay gap has given you many insights. This gender based wage gap is a big problem, and everyone needs to do more to make things better. It is unfair to get paid lesser for doing the same work and same hours simply because you are a woman. This is 2021, and things have to change fast.

Author Bio:

Sussana Balashova is a creative magician in a world of (mostly) boring marketing. She works for college-paper.org review, where she turns dreary work things to be exciting and compelling and likes creating her world within some fanfic sketches. Reach out to her on Twitter or LinkedIn.