Answer

The Case of Equal Pay

            Fighting to ensure an equal pay between male and female employees in the workplace has remained to be one of the fundamental factors within the labor sector. However, stagnation in wages as generally experienced by the members of the workforce is one of the current events associated with equal pay.

            Connley (2020) states that the tighter payrolls have restricted the capability of women employees to move up the pay scale in the same way it does for the male workers. Although this situation has its roots to the 1970s, it has several causes  such as from automation to global wage arbitrage. Moreover, it is clear that besides the matter of wage stagnation, the easy gains in income is no longer a factor being experienced. Notably, more women found their way into the labor sector during the 1970s and 1980s. Also, more enhanced their studies and attained college degrees and secured competitive positions in the workplace which were once completed by men. However, it is prevalent that this significant trend has been greatly absorbed, with the expected future gains being likely to be gauged more.

Although the primary focus of the equal pay is to close the gap in wages experienced by the male and female employees, the gap has increasingly become worse among college-educated women in the labor force. According to Jakiela and Hares (2019), education is regarded as a factor which increases a woman’s earnings but does not have the capacity to lessen the sex pay gap. This is an ironic trend since more women are now degree holders in comparison to the males in the workforce. Despite this, an even higher gap in the gender pay is experienced. Mercadante (2020) records that bachelor’s degree holder female employees earn 75% of the average value offered to the men in the same position on a weekly basis.

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