Gender Pay Gap: Unequal Pay Rates of Men and Women

Gender Pay Gap
Existence Argument

Many problems exist in our modern society, one of which is the unequal pay rates of men and women. This "gender pay gap" has been cause for many debates over the years but the simple fact of the matter is that a difference between men and women's salary most certainly exists even in the present day. Regardless of this empirical fact many parties still argue that a pay gap does not exist. The major argument used to debate said non existence of a gender specific pay gap is that women don't get paid less than men due to discrimination but rather they get paid less because they are simply not trying hard enough to get paid more. Apparently according this argument, women tend to lean more towards "softer" careers, ones that tend to pay less, in order to spend more time with the family. However if a woman did choose a "hard" career, one that pays more, she apparently would be held back from making more money by her choice to have a child and a family, but both these arguments are forms of discrimination in of themselves. Who is to say that a man could not be the one raising a child or wanting to spend time with his family? This traditional way of thought is the fundamental basis for their argument against the existence of a gender pay gap, one that stems from cultural expectations on who has to cut back on their career to care for a child. It's simply blindly expected that a woman's choice to have a child would have a major impact on her career and the same does not apply for a man, so much so that she deserves to make less income than a man would. Stepping back briefly to look at the data that supports the side that a gender pay gap does in fact exist, data was collected from the Center of American Progress Center stating that women as a whole make around $10,000 less a year on average than a man would. As of 2010 women have been making just 77% of income a man would make when both parties a working full time. The most startling fact is that when taking into account, ethnicity, age and education level, woman make less across the board when compared to their male counterpart. The only left standing would be that woman choose easier careers that offer more time for family life and thus pay less money but this notion is ultimately flawed as well. The problem with this argument is that it groups women of all careers with men all careers but in order to see the full picture one must take a glance at each career field in its own regard. Using data from the bureau of labor statistics, it's apart that the gender pay gap exists in nearly every sector including the areas that usually are controlled by the female population. Simply put, a female joining the same high paying profession as a male, both having equal education, would still make less than said male. With this it becoming readily apparent that there is in fact still an issue with women not receiving equal pay to men in occupations across the entire spectrum of the work force.