why do men earn more than women in the workplace

Running head : Gender Discrimination in Wages

Analysis of the Gender Discrimination in Wages at Workplace

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Analysis of the Gender Discrimination in Wages at Workplace

Diversity is a major dynamic reality faced by the modern organizations Discrimination of age , gender , education , race or culture has turned obsolete . Workforce diversity is not only a legal obligation now , but changing workforce demographics , competitive pressures and the need for diverse view points are compelling organizations to stop discriminating on any aspect of the diversity . Besides age composition , there are also changes occurring in

gender composition . Women have been entering the workforce in record numbers over the last four decades . In Seventies women accounted less than 40 percent of the they make up more than half of the workforce (Luthans , 2002 . This diversity development is dramatically changing the policies and day-to-day practices of organizations . There are however a number of serious issues related to pay and opportunities for women . In 1963 President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law , making it unlawful to discriminate against a worker on the basis of sex . Despite the existence of this law , which spells out equal pay and opportunity for women , companies are finding it difficult to compensate both the genders on equality basis . This has been designed to identify the major reasons for this inequality in to rectify and improve the situation

The importance of understanding this issue has multiple dimensions Women are no more the weaker half of the society . The are contributing equally if not less than the men in every sphere of advancement . It is a misperception that women opt for soft jobs with lesser pays . The 21st century is witnessing a tremendous change in the women job psychology Currently , the number of women enrolling in higher education institutions is surpassing the numbers of men enrolled . There are now more graduate women available in the market than men . In the fields of professional occupations like medical , law and business , the number of women graduates will exceed the number of men graduates in the near future . There is a dire need to comprehend the issue of wage discrimination based on gender since it will go a long way in serving the society as a whole

To measure the salary differentials , wage gap is often used which is a statistical indicator used as an index of the status of women 's earnings relative to men 's . The wage gap is expressed in terms of percentage which is calculated by dividing the median annual earnings for women by median annual earnings for men (Kahn and Blau , 1994 . In 2002 , according to the wage gap indicator , women earned 76 as much as men (Hartlauer 2003

There are a number of reasons for the wage gap between men and women Some economists relate it to the rational choices made by women . Females generally do not concentrate as much on careers as the men do . They are often found to be less in skills , education and training...