Why Does Gender Pay Inequality Persist?

Why Does sex stick out In equality Persist?With the change magnitude trend of the remarkably importance of the grammatical sexual urge soften equality during the past a few(prenominal) decades, organisations and many com mentators have been gainful fussy attention to the telling trends, legislations, news, economy and global agitate mart as a whole to address the diligence of the sexuality ease up inequality occurred nowadays. Pay equity is defined as a particular strategy for reducing or eliminating the pursue geological fault amidst or among groups such(prenominal) as women and men, or various ethnic groups (Thomas 2006). It was mentioned in the CONSAD look for tummyorations paper (2009) that there have been significant increase for women to participate in the working class legions, to acquire higher reading take and to make self-coloured real stipend. For instance, Lander ONeill (1991) indicated that Australian women participation rate in the push force has doubled since 1947. Moreover, it was showed in the fosterage world(prenominal)s report (2010) that the average fe staminate grade rate in higher statement in OECD countries is 16 pct more than the male graduation rate. Yet the challenge is that women have been secureing slight than men all through the developed countries around the world nonethe little they ar well educated and actively participate in the work force (Hatt1997). Taking an example in Australia, women earn approximately 80 per centum of mens wages (Lander ONeill 1991). The persistence of the sexuality give birth gap is puzzling although the gender fee equity ratio has been steadily rising and a panoptic range of legislations such as Equal Employment prospect and assentient Action were implemented to address the issue (Smith 2009 Lander ONeill 1991). This paper forget shortly demonstrate the historical overview with respect to the topic. It will proceed to identify the countrywide reasons for the existence of gender break inequality. It will then illustrate the advantages of having pay equality worldwide. Last but non least, the paper will commend some of the strategies which organisations can best address the challenge by utilising clutch non-discriminatory workplace practices and policies.Historical OverviewThe ancient time of keeping women staying and working at home while men were responsible for earning a living had passed afterwards the World War II (Amaram 2010). The participation rate of women joining the labour force has greatly boosted due to the establishment of some legislation to send off obstacles of womens employment and to allow women working in certain kinds of work such as metal industry (ODonnell Hall 1988). The booming economy and labour shortage triggered the fact that women were encouraged to replace men, who were resisting in the war, in the labour market (ODonnell Hall 1988). Campaigns were also formed by many womens organisations to comb at for the equal pay between men and women (ODonnell Hall 1988). Some supporters power the theory of comparable worth that there should be equal pay for hire outs entailing similar skill, effort, responsibility and work conditions, and that this parity should occur regardless of several(prenominal) job market fosters (Grider Toombs 1993). However, even there were legislation, theories and womens organisations to protect women from getting unequal pay the gender wage gap has been existed for many years. To explain this gap, there atomic number 18 a couple of complex reasons which directly and indirectly result in the gender differences in pay.Occupational sequestration whizz of the primary reasons for the gender pay differences is due to occupational requisition. Men and women argon not evenly allocated in all occupational categories. Women tend to be distributed in low-paying industries or occupations which directly affect their average earnings (Smith 2009 Hatt 1997 McAu ley 1981 Mumford 1989 Lander ONeill 1991 Education International 2010 Curlew Weber 2010). It was pointed out that women were mainly employed in companionship of interests services, the wholesale and retail trade, clerical work and catering whereas men were broadly employed in mining, electricity, gas and water, manufacturing as well as social mental synthesis industries where men are more likely to receive well supra average pay (ODonnell Hall 1988 Hatt 1997). The consequence of setting women apart in certain occupations with low-status and low-paid partially results in the gender pay gap.Vertical SegregationRather than cons grooming women in particular occupations or industries, vertical segregation occurs in both public and private sectors when women are located in swallow positions and men are placed in more higher-ranking positions such as executive or managerial roles (Mumford 1989). Women are presumptuousness very few opportunities to engage in promotion to higher p ositions, and whence women are constrained their mobility upwards to the organisational hierarchy and they are under-represented at of age(p) positions in all occupations (Hatt 1997). This phenomenon is closely related to the glass ceiling make for women that refer to those artificial barriers based on attitudinal or organisational bias that interdict qualified individuals from advancing upward in their organisation into management-level positions (U.S. Department of sweat 1991). Hence, vertical segregation is an another(prenominal) factor that leads to the gender pay gap.Family obligationAs a result of the family obligation to give birth as well as take care of the children and elders at home, there has been a greater percentage for women to participate in more flexible irregular and perfunctory employments than men who tend to have regular employments (Smith 2009 CONSAD Research Corp 2009 Curlew Weber 2010 Amaram 2010). It was indicated in Amaram (2010)s study that pregn ancy leading to the absence of women is 36 percent more than men and married men are more likely to work longer hours to make up the loss of the earnings for the family. Un interrogationedly, it was claimed by many reporters that part-time employment pays relatively less than full-time employment, thus the unbalanced participation in part-time works ca maps women to be classified in lower level of income groups without adequate chances for skill improvement and promotion opportunities (Education International 2010 Parliament of the acres of Australia 2009).Womens Tendency of Education and prevail Choices and PatternsThe educational paths that men and women decide for their studys in higher education or universities are different, indirectly affect the real earnings between men and women in the workforce (Amaram 2010). Amaram (2010) showed in his paper that men in the main prefer sciences as their majors whilst women prefer humanities and education. The assumption is that men a nd women are likely to choose their desired majors at colleges or universities that can reflect what they are going to choose for their careers in the future, which leads to the completion by Hartmann (2004) that the pay of the male-nominated occupations tends to be higher than effeminate-nominated occupations. One of the explanations can be attributed that women tend to choose a safer work environment such as being a secretary, teacher or receptionist and they are willing to comport less-paid jobs (Education International 2010 Farrell 2005). In addition, based on the GAOs report (2003) showing that women commonly work fewer hours and take more breaks away from work than men, women are therefore less work experience and human capital at work that brings about the consequence of earning less income.Historical and Social Stereotypes of Under-Valuating Womens sour and SkillsBased on the historical overview mentioned in the first section, up until the befriend World War, women we re supposed to stay at home for cleaning and deliverance up the children while men were taking the main role to be the breadwinner for the whole family (Amaram 2010 Elias Purcell 1988). According to Press (2006), companies advertised for job vacancies in the newspapers listed apiece for men and women, as well as womens pay was greatly lower than men. In no doubt, the historical factors generated the hypothesis that womens works are semi-skilled and recreational (Smith 2009). This hypothesis was supported by Lander ONeill (1991) and Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia (2009) that womens skills and works are always under-valuated and unrecognised, which causes the social stereotypes on the perception of effeminates capability to work in certain occupational categories. In other words, women may earn less than men as a result of their skills and works were devaluated by the community and organisations based on the social stereotypes.Direct Gender Discrimination there are many theorists agreed that direct gender discrimination part account for the gender wage gap (Curlew Weber 2010 Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia 2009 Hatt 1997 McAuley 1981). It happens when women and men are treated unequally facing the same job requirements with the same educational level and work experience (Education International 2010). Although it is unconventional to discriminate women from being recruited in male-nominated occupations in most of the developed countries, gender discrimination indeed moderately initiates the gender pay differences. It was even report that gender discrimination and bias comprise half of the gender pay gap (Lander ONeill 1991). Consequently, no matter the organisational and societal sex discrimination is knowing or unintentional, it is clear that gender bias is an essential element of the persistence of wage gap between men and women.Other ReasonsApart from the major factors brought up previously, there are other reasons which s hould account for the wage gap as well in terms of the chore of the chastity-type payment systems, total affiliation, and womens value on non-wage wellbeings such as health indemnity. Firstly, it is important to date the rise of the individual contracts together with the meaning of less collective negociate like the decline of trade unions at workplaces (Bamber, Lansbury Wailey 2004). Also, merit-type payment including merit increments and merit bonuses is the most popular individual performance pay plans that are widely used in the USA and many other Western countries at once (Shields, 2007). One of the disadvantages of the merit-type payment systems is that it lacks of transparency of the pay structure, hence, it is always up to the managements kickshaw of any individual performance and pay where there are in all chance the existence of discriminatory components (Grider Toombs 1993). Secondly, it was claimed that the formation of a trade union will bring a wage rate of 17.6 percent up for union members (Hatt 1997, Amaram 2010). With the significant rising trend of women participating in part-time and casual employments stated earlier, it is less possible for women to become union members that they comparatively earn less than men who normally work as full-time employees and are union members. Lastly, research was also done by the CONSAD Research potbelly stove (2009) that there is a greater probability that women may relatively value more on non-wage benefits and other employee benefits such as childcare, health insurance and advisory services when comparing to men. Accordingly, women may value other aspects of benefits other than wage that may cause the gender wage differences.Advantages of the Existence of Gender Pay EqualityDespite the limitations acknowledged which block the way to gender pay equality, there are a series of advantages for individuals, families, organisations and economy as a whole provided that gender pay equity exists. P ay equality increases the empowerment of women and reduces the chances of womens experience to harassment, violence and exploitation at work (Cornish 2008). Additionally, it brings affirmatory effects to the well-being and wealth of the families as a result of the change magnitude income, which ultimately improves the situation of poverty, economy and social justice (Lander ONeill 1991 Education International 2010 Curlew Weber 2010). For the organisations, supply morale and productivity will be change magnitude and absenteeism will be decreased if gender pay equity exists in the workplace because employees feel fairness among others (Curlew Weber 2010). Thus, organisations should proactively take actions to address the problem of the persistence of gender pay inequality in order to benefit itself, employees, community and other stakeholders involved.Organisational Strategies for Tackling the ChallengeAlthough governments intervention of implementing fair pay legislations amo ng male and female employees is indispensable, as Smith (2009) claimed that the legislative reform alone is not enough. Strategic non-discriminatory workplace practices and policies should be carefully planned, designed, implemented and monitored at the organisational level in order to build positive images to the public without violating any relative discriminatory issues, as well as maximise the benefits of balancing the gender pay differences. Therefore, human resource management teams play major roles in making every single decision to align with the organisational strategies. First of all, it is recommended to use objective, systematic and consistent process of job evaluation systems to deal with gender-based inequities in pay (Lander ONeill 1991). De Corte (1993) suggested a model-based approach to job evaluation to calculate the probability to gender bias related to pay at work. Secondly, male and female recruiters should be involved in the recruitment and selection stages s o that female candidates will not be excluded in a discriminatory way. Thirdly, training and development should be regularly provided to all employees with the intention that women are precondition chances to promotion in a higher hierarchical level in the organisations. Fourthly, mentoring programs with professional consultants or management should be offered to female employees, who have adequate knowledge and capabilities, to encourage them participating in senior positions (Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency 2010). Fifthly, flexible workplace arrangements such as home-based assignments as well as childcare services should also be on tap(predicate) to allow female employees having work-life balance (ODonnell Hall 1988). Lastly, organisations should conduct a gender pay audit annually, which provides detailed information regarding the gender pay structure and figures of the whole organisation and the percentage of female employees being promoted to the senior p ositions (Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency 2010). The strategies proposed above are only few subtle pieces of a complex jigsaw puzzle beyond doubt organisations should proactively look for other approaches to address the problem of gender pay inequality. proofThe condition of gender pay inequality has been steadily improved in the last few decades. However, in reality it does persist due to an take off of complex reasons in terms of occupational and vertical segregation, parenthood, womens propensity of education and occupation choices and patterns, historical stereotypes and under-valuation of womens skills and work, direct gender discrimination, the setback of the merit-type payment systems, union affiliation, and different values on wage and non-wage employee benefits between men and women. These factors illustrated are merely the key causes and further research should be done to elaborated the thorough formation of the wage gap. It is clear that the pursuit of gender pay equality brings individuals, families, organisations, community and economy positive effects. Consequently, organisations should better equip themselves and head to the attainment of eliminating the gender wage gap. Systematic and appropriate non-discriminatory workplace practices and policies should be well implemented to encourage fairness among male and female employees in pay and promotion according to their knowledge, skills and competencies. On account of the increased staff morale and happiness at work, organisations can also build a healthy and positive public image that in turn increasing the organisational attractiveness and competitive advantages in the labour market. In conjunction with the possible support by government, community and unions, it is believed further reduction of the gender wage gap is feasible.