Is There a Difference Between Men and Women Pay?

Is There a Difference Between Men and Women Pay?

Running Head: IS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN PAY?

Is There A Difference In Pay Between Men And Women?

By

Stacy M. Lee

Staffing and Selection Staffing

HRMG-5800

July 11, 2013

Introduction

What is equal pay for men and women? Who determines how much one gets paid? What does equal pay mean? All these questions and more will be answered in the literature review. Equal pay is when all employees are paid equally for doing the same job, with the same ability and skills. Most companies have the right to implement pay wages based on the company growth and production level. There is not a clear definition on what is equal pay for men and women but that's when the Equal Pay Act comes into action.

"Occupational earnings survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics almost invariably report substantially higher average rates pay for men than for women performing the same general type of work" (McNulty,1967, p.40) Assuming when women entered the workforce men have been dominating the pay charts for doing the same job and sometimes lessor work. The study of two literature reviews entitled "Differences in pay between men and women workers" by Donald J. McNulty and "Pay differences between men and women in the same jobs" by John E. Buckley will hopefully shed some insight to what "We" have known to be true for a long time… Men are paid more.

Findings/Results

In the research article titled "Differences in pay between men and women workers" by McNulty (1967), the study was based on surveys that were conducted in 84 metropolitan areas by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) concerning occupational earnings and related practices. The study was conducted on eight offices, three plants and men and women from each. The differences in pay averages for both men and women was measured by major industry division, regions, on the basis of if organizations employed only one sex or both and individual establishments. The findings for this study supported the ideal that men do make more money than women. McNulty (1967) study concluded that at all establishment level, men earnings averaged more than women in all of the 11 occupations by amounts ranging from 35 percent for order clerk to 5 percent for office boys and girls. No consistency was found between the level of occupation between men and women. McNulty (1967) found a large difference in elevator operators in the North Central Region. The findings showed the average for men exceeded the average for women by 53 percent. When it came to individual establishments McNulty (1967) found that the differences for individual establishments between men and women were smaller than group establishments. McNulty (1967) also found that the occupational wage advantages for men were usually much smaller among establishments employing both sexes in the same job than among all establishment including those employing men or women only in an occupation.

In the second article titled "Pay differences between men and women in the same job" Buckley (1967), focused on three areas of study: Among and within establishments, Trends and Wage discrimination by sex. The first area "among and within establishments" was based among all the information gathered about the ten occupations. The occupation included eight office jobs and two plant jobs in the nation's metropolitan area. The statistics showed that among the ten occupations studied in 1970 only 18 percent of men were favored in receiving better pay. The second area "trends" was based on previous studies that had been done on the same occupations early on in 1958-1959 and 1966. After doing an extensive study on those 10 occupations during these years, the author concluded that from 1966 and 1970 the percentage stayed at 11 percent for men having average wage advantages over their female counterparts in occupations that employed both sexes and around 21-22 percent in similar occupations. The upset came into play for plant jobs. Pay for men that worked as janitors during these years dropped from 20 percent to 15 percent and men who worked as shipping packers pay dropped from 23 percent to 17 percent. The third area "wage discrimination by male or female" was undetected. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) could neither confer nor deny if wage discrimination ever existed.

Gender Pay Gap Statistics

According to the Australian Government