Gender Pay Gap

Amanda Holt, Mason Lux, Alyson Kowalczyk, Rebecca Hiebing

Current Inequalities
● Women make 80 cents to a man’s dollar
○ $10,800 less year round
● Women make less than a man with a lower
education level
○ Man’s undergraduate vs. woman’s masters
● Maternity leave
○ Paid or unpaid
○ No daycare options
Equal Pay Act
● Passed in 1963
○ Aimed to get rid of the disparities among wages based on sex
● Took off during WWII
● One of the first laws that aimed to reduce
gender discrimination in the
work place
● Pregnancy Discrimination Act (1978)
○ Protection for pregnant
workers
● Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (2009)
○ Reduced time restrictions on
on wage discrimination
complaints
Why is this an Issue?

● Many times they are not intentional

○ Occur based on policies that are in place
● Loopholes
○ Seniority
○ Merit
○ Productivity
● Glass Ceiling
○ Keeps qualified women from succeeding
Countries that have it figured out
- Luxembourg
- Many Nordic Countries
- Finland, Iceland, and Norway
- Romania
- 2008 Economic Crisis
- Ministry of Labour, Family, and Social Protection
- No specific Laws were put into place
Possible Solution:
● Work life and personal time for employees
○ Paternity leave for men
● Switzerland study
○ Motherhood penalty
○ Mothers had a 7% wage penalty per child in
the U.S
■ A third of that is loss of work
experience
○ Men not being able to take time off for kids
● By giving paternity leaves it
gives women the chance to
heal and get back to work
before losing that work
experience
● Women never get the
chance to go back to work if
they cannot afford childcare
Possible Solution Continued...
● Lack of child care options for families
● Child care is expensive
○ Average annual cost of child care in the United States is almost $12,000
● Companies have the option to supply a daycare at the workplace
● Google and Johnson & Johnson
● Cisco
○ The UK and two other locations have onsite daycares from 6 weeks old to 12 years of age
○ The U.S Cisco only offers discounted rates at different daycares
■ Which is a start
● Childcare would only be the start to getting mothers back to work and over all improving the pay gap
How this will work:

● Paternity leave:
○ Helps moms get back on their feet faster and able to get back to work and hold their positions
■ Mothers are discriminated against in many workplaces for having kids
■ This shows with their drop in pay by not being able to work because of their kids
● Widing the pay gap
● Child Care:
○ By providing childcare in the workplace it helps both parents continuing to work and improve
● The pay would not be affected as much if mothers can still work while having children U.S and the citizens concerns
with government control
○ Awareness helps keep this to a minimum
Conclusion
The gender pay gap cannot be ignored so it can benefit both women and men by not putting the stress
of being the breadwinner on one person in the relationship. Also the chance for men to be able to take
paternity leave will benefit both women and men because a child needs both parents if possible in the
beginning of the child's life, and the cost of child care is expensive
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