Big Picture

Historically, women have been underprivileged in pay compared to men. Experts from the Center of American Progress estimate that women have lost over $61 trillion in the past 60 years and believe that the gender wage gap won’t be closed until 2056. Although the pay gap between men and women has diminished, many ingrained psychological notions still constrain women from achieving the same pay as men in the workforce. The gender wage gap is often viewed from socio-political and economic lenses, but it must also be examined on an individual level. By examining the individual we can understand why men persist to succeed over women in the workforce.

Operative Definitions

The Equal Pay Act (EPA), 1963: The EPA protects all individuals against wage discrimination based on sex, including:

• Salary
• Overtime
• Bonuses
• Life insurance
• Vacation and holiday pay
• Other allowances or reimbursements

To file a compensation discrimination claim under the EPA, the jobs being compared must require equal skill, effort and responsibility performed under similar working conditions.

Pay Transparency: openly disclosing information about pay, salary ranges and the criteria for compensation to current or prospective employees in pursuit of pay equity.

Implicit Bias: a negative prejudice or attitude that one is not consciously aware of against a specific social group. It is shaped by experiences and learned associations between specific traits and group members.

Motherhood Penalty: mothers suffer penalties in addition to the existing wage gap in the workforce. More specifically, these penalties concern hiring, salary compensations and perceived competence. The motherhood penalty contributes to the gender wage gap significantly.

Fatherhood Bonus: men with children are more likely to be hired than childless men and are often paid more. These men are viewed to be more responsible, stable and committed to their work than childless men.

Homophily: forming stronger social connections with people who share characteristics with you such as age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and beliefs.

Important Facts and Statistics

1. White men earn on average $55.5K annually, while Asian women earn $46.3K, white women earn $41.8K, Black women earn $33.2K, and Hispanic women earn $30.3K.

2. Male-dominated fields are more valued in terms of pay in society than female-dominated. The Petroleum Engineering major yields the highest paying job, with a median earning of $136K and a female composition of 14 percent. An Early Childhood Education major earns the least, with a medium of $39K, and a female composition of 96 percent.

3. Men with children earn 15 percent more than men without children. Women with children earn three percent less than women without children.

4. In 2022, American women earned an average of 82 cents for every dollar earned by men.

5. The gender pay gap has barely closed in the past two decades. In 2002, women earned 80 cents to every dollar men earned. There is a two-cent increase from 2002 to 2022, but progress has stalled since the 2000s.

Three-Point Plan:

1. Implicit Bias Awareness and Training

Implicit bias exists unconsciously within everyone. Therefore, raising awareness of implicit biases can help reduce any unconscious discriminatory practices in hiring, perceptions, evaluations and salary negotiations. It’s important to partner with researchers specialized in this area to develop concrete evidence-based training programs that target bias reduction. Employers should take the Implicit Association Test (IAT) to spotlight any biases they may hold which will increase self-awareness. Methods like perspective-taking, or counter-stereotypic imaging, should be implemented to reduce implicit bias and stereotyping.

2. Pay Transparency Legislation

Increasing openness about pay practices can reduce pay discrepancies by keeping employers accountable. Any wage disparities will be highlighted, allowing employees or policymakers to identify any gender-based wage gaps. Pay transparency serves as a tool for employees to combat and challenge the wage gap directly. Many states and regions globally have adopted pay transparency laws. For instance, as of April 2023, the EU requires all companies to disclose information on salaries if their gender pay gap exceeds five percent. In the UK, employers with 250 or more employees report on their “Gender Pay Gap,” which details pay structure and high-level statistics. By using the legislature abroad, the U.S. can impose something similar to shed light on potential disparities and hold firms accountable.

3. Promote Gender Diversity Across Industries and Job Levels

Female-dominated fields are paid less than male-dominated, and integrating into male-led fields is inherently difficult due to organizational inequality in these fields. In other words, men have an advantage over women in male-dominated fields due to a plethora of reasons: stereotypes about competence can hinder female success in male-dominated fields. There are also notions of homophily in networking and mentorship. Lastly, workplace culture often promotes traditionally masculine norms such as assertiveness and risk-taking.

Providing grants or tax incentives can encourage women to integrate into STEM, leadership or traditionally male-dominated fields. The Republic of Korea has allocated research and development funding to support female entrepreneurs and implemented STEM programs that are tailored to women. Over the last two decades, these continuous efforts have quantitatively increased the number of women in STEM and labor force participation for women in their 30s to 40s. Therefore, providing incentives and promoting women to enter male-dominated fields can challenge pre-existing gender wage disparities between fields.

Why This Initiative is Important

Women consist of 50 percent of the world’s population. That’s half of the world disadvantaged in the workforce systemically and through implicit perceptions. Globally 72 percent of scientific researchers are men. Across Europe, 83 percent of scientists and engineers are male. There is a huge disparity of women entering highly paid, male-dominated fields. In the corporate world, women are passed over for promotions and employment opportunities due to implicit bias. Psychological concepts such as the motherhood penalty, the fatherhood bonus and implicit bias prove that these biases exist on the individual level, creating challenges for women in the workforce. This must be amended. Women have so much to contribute to all domains of society and promoting their accessibility to all fields is paramount to achieving global equality.

Acknowledgment: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author.