How to Solve the Gender Wage Gap
The gender wage gap is the term describing the situation where the average salary of women is lower than men. In the developed countries, women’s rights are given much attention. One of those is the right to work. In the recent decades, working women have become a common theme in the society, just like men in work. In the past, there was an issue of employers intentionally paying women less than men. Thus, laws and policies have been made that women should be paid equally as men for the same work to close the wage gap between genders. However, according to many governmental departments and research institutions, such as Taiwan’s Minister of Labor (2020), the wage gap still exists. It was 14.2% in Taiwan in 2019, and it was 18.5% in the US in 2018.
But why hasn’t the gender wage gap been closed since we have laws to prevent that? Some blame it on gender discrimination in workplaces, saying that men who are the dominants prevent women from gaining power. Yet, an analysis made by the US Department of Labor (2009) wrote, “Extant economic research has identified numerous factors that contribute to the gender wage gap. Many of the factors relate to differences in the choices and behavior of women and men in balancing their work, personal, and family lives” (p. 15). They stated that the existence of the wage gap is mainly due to the fact that men and women make different choices. They further wrote the most notable factors, including the choices of occupations and industries, human capital development, and career interruptions and motherhood. In order the close the gender wage gap, I think we need to change these three situations where men and women play out differently.
Firstly, men and women tend to have different occupations and professions. And the ones that men to have are often high-paying jobs. This can be seen based on the choices of college majors that men and women make. Perry (2016) claimed that among the top 10 highest-paying majors, men are vastly over-represented than women by 80% in eight occupations, while only 1 of them, which is nursing, is dominated by women. Therefore, this can predict that more men will obtain the occupations with the highest salary than women. My survey, based on the answers from 84 participants, also showed similar results. 58.3% answered that men are more likely to enter a higher-paying department in their companies. One of the participants, who claimed to be a heart surgeon, gave a special answer. He indicated that when he was still in the medical school, women often chose easier departments, such as dermatology or pediatrics. On the other hand, only 1 out of 10 women would choose to become a heart surgeon since it is a lot more difficult.
However, some may argue that women’s choices aren’t truly made solely by themselves but are under the influence of gender stereotypes. If the society is truly equal, men and women would be equally represented in those professions. Many people believed that, until a study was made. The findings in the study is the opposite of what people anticipated and the phenomenon was given the name “Gender-equality paradox”. As Stoet and Geary (2018) wrote, “Paradoxically, the sex differences in the magnitude of relative academic strengths and pursuit of STEM degrees increased with increases in national gender equality” (p. 1). It shows that the differences between genders in the STEM education is larger in the countries with higher gender equality than the ones that are less gender equal. Thus, it’s not the influence of stereotypes that causes women to have less-paying jobs. To help close the gender wage gap, women should start pursuing professions and occupations with higher salary.
Another factor for the gender wage gap is differences of human capital development. Human capital refers to the value of people’s knowledge, habits, social and personality attributes, which are normally valued by the labor market. One’s knowledge can be viewed based on the person’s educational level. The data from Taiwan’s Department of Statistics, Ministry of Education (2020) shows the gender ratio in each university. In National Chung Cheng University, although there are more women than men in bachelor’s classes, it’s men that out-numbered women in master’s courses and nearly doubled in PhD courses. Ever since the 1990s, almost everyone in Taiwan can go to college. So, women out-numbering men in bachelor degree is not such a big deal. But in terms of higher degrees, namely master’s and PhD, are out-numbered by men. Another trait in human capital is habits, especially in workplaces. According to my survey, 56% of the participants gave their answers that men are mostly likely to work overtime in their companies. Also, 26% thought that work hours makes a difference in salary. Compared to women, men are more likely to both have higher education and work overtime. As a result, men would end up get paid more. Thus, if women were to earn as many as men, they should pursue a higher degree and devote more time to their work.
Finally, men and women have different roles when marriage and children are involved. Women are more likely to reduce their worktime or even quit their job in order to take care of their family and children. According to Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (2016), among all the working women who are married, 15.38% of them resigned because of marriage and 17.34% resigned because of pregnancy. In my survey, 85% of respondents said that women are the primary ones that decrease work time for their children. This would of course influence their overall performance in their work and how much they earn. To solve the problem, this would need discussion and cooperation with their partners or husbands. The easiest way is just to not have kids at all. If the couple don’t to take care of any child, then they don’t need to make any changes in their work. Or they can work it out. Try to come up with a schedule that they equally take parts in the care of their child, ask parents or relatives to help, or hire a nanny if they can afford.
In short, the different earnings between men and women can be concluded with one word, “choices.” It’s the choices of occupations, human capital development, and parenthood that make the differences. Right now, in the developed world, men and women are treated fairly equal. There are differences between genders and they grow up with different experiences. As a result, they think differently when they’re making decisions. However, the law has already removed the obstacle that prevent women to have the life they want. The society now accepts women to not be traditional housewives and not have children. Successful people are the ones that are willing to spend as many time as possible to their work and don’t care about other things. Most successful people are men, but there are also women that are just as successful as those men. If men and women are making similar choices, the gender wage gap can shrink to non-existence.
References
Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, Executive Yuan, R.O.C.
(Taiwan). (2016). 調查結果綜合分析. Retrieved from: https://www.dgbas.gov.tw/public/Attachment/7911117100ZT9Y70G.pdf
Minister of Education Republic of China (Taiwan). (2020). 大專校院校別學生數.
Retrieved from: https://depart.moe.edu.tw/ED4500/News_Content.aspx?n=5A930C32CC6C3818&sms=91B3AAE8C6388B96&s=596D9D77281BE257
Minister of Labor Republic of China (Taiwan). (2020). 108年我國兩性薪資差距.
Retrieved from: https://www.mol.gov.tw/media/5761847/108%e5%b9%b4%e6%88%91%e5%9c%8b%e5%85%a9%e6%80%a7%e8%96%aa%e8%b3%87%e5%b7%ae%e8%b7%9d.pdf
Perry, M. (2016). Highest-paying college majors, gender composition of students
earning degrees in those fields and the gender pay gap. Retrieved from: https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/highest-paying-college-majors-gender-composition-of-students-earning-degrees-in-those-fields-and-the-gender-pay-gap/
Stoet, G., & Geary, D. C. (2018). The gender-equality paradox in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. Psychological science, 29(4), 581-593. Retrieved from: http://eprints.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/4753/6/symplectic-version.pdf
US Department of Labor. (2009). An analysis of reasons for the disparity in wages between men and women.