The Gender Pay Gap

Today, women represent almost half of the workforce in the labour department. There have been increasingly more opportunities for women to enter the labour market who are equally competitive in some fields as men. Despite the high amount of achievement and participation that women have made in the labor force in recent decades, they are still struggling with the access to the upper level positions in the organization. This barrier to vertical movement for women in the workforce is commonly known as “glass ceiling”. This metaphor of ‘glass ceiling’ represents the invisible and artificial barrier that women experience at some point during their progress toward high-ranking positions (Sampson & Moore, 2008). It tends to limit their advancement
One of the measures of the glass ceiling is a wage gap between men and women. It is globally accepted that the equality between men and women in the workplace in terms of salaries is a priority, however, a substantial wage gaps still remains a huge issue among numerous industries and countries (Sciccitano, 2012). This is particularly evident in higher managerial positions. Thus, the presence of wage gap is the biggest predictor of the glass ceiling that prevents women to advance to top most career positions. The research suggests many causes of the existence of the gender pay gap. One of them is the different negotiation style between the two sexes. The negotiation occurs at all levels and departments in any firm. The studies show that as the negotiation skills are a must in order to advance up in career, achieve profits and earn a higher salary (Stuhlmacher & Walters, 1999). In addition, studies show that the women are inherently not comfortable negotiating about their salaries, and when they do, they are treated differently than men. Thus, women do not gain much financial benefits from the negotiations, especially about wage (Gonas & Bergman, 2009). Therefore, from the above studies, the following hypothesis is
The latter part of the survey included question items that were rated on a 5 point Likert-type scale from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree), where 3 being "neutral". The items were designed both positively and negatively. For instance, "I am always invited to the company's informal events along with my male coworkers", "I feel that my opinions is not as much heard as my male coworkers" (Jackson, 2001). The end of questionnaire included a small optional open-ended item for any comments or suggestion on what their perception of their firm's policies and their career strategy