ENG 160.25
Paper 1
Abigail Costello
Proposal: The Gender Pay Gap
In the US, women get paid 83 cents for every dollar men make, which continues to hurt our nation’s workers and the natural economy. My research topic is the gender pay gap issue. How can we reduce the pay gap between men and women? This topic and question interest me because billions of women are affected by this pay gap. For instance, the pay gap follows women into retirement, and as a result of their lower earnings, they receive less social security and pensions than their male counterparts who work the same job. This topic is relevant to the audience because each and every single female in your life, including you if you identify as a female, will be impacted by the gender pay gap. My stance is that there should not be a pay gap. Everybody should receive the same income for working the same job. People may argue that women should find ‘the positivity’ in this pay gap, stating that the pay gap helps bolster women’s work performance and strengthen the economy, but I disagree. This research paper will explain why the gender pay gap should not exist and what we can do to narrow the pay gap using various sources from academic papers and articles.

Recently, I conversed with a male peer who was in the same major as me and had the same career interests. In 2022, the two of us are paying the same amount for the same education. However, in 2032, I will make less money than he will because of the gender pay gap issue. As a result, I will receive less social security and pensions when I retire, which means I will receive only 70% of what he does in retirement income. How is that fair? We paid equal amounts of money for our education where we have the same career with the same degree from the same college. The sad news is, I won’t be the only woman in that situation. Billions of other women on this planet, who I will most likely never know exist, will go through the same exact thing as me if we don’t reduce the gender pay gap. This new generation of women doesn’t have to suffer from the pay gap like previous generations have. Fixing the pay gap won’t be easy, but we can take small steps towards this change.

Before any change can happen, people need to follow the first and most crucial step, not to ignore the pay gap issue. I recently read three articles called “9 Steps to Close the Gender Pay Gap on Equal Pay Day,” “7 Actions That Could Shrink the Gender Wage Gap,” and “8 Steps Economists Say Could Help Close the Gender Pay Gap” that all explains steps we can take to closing the gap. Each article enhances my point on closing the wage gap and explains various methods to closing the gap. All three articles also made one essential point, which is that we need to raise awareness to the pay gap issue because without awareness, change can’t happen. Therefore, the first step to closing the gap is increasing awareness on the gender pay gap issue, as it’s difficult to notice how an issue impacts other employees when you’re not affected. One way to raise awareness is by increasing pay transparency. Many employees are encouraged not to share their income, which makes it difficult for employees to determine whether they are being compensated fairly. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, embracing translucent pay practices can help to narrow the gender pay gap by up to 30% by forbidding retribution against employees who proclaim their wages and increasing penalties for wage discrimination. After this, one influential step to closing the gender pay gap would be raising the minimum wage. Low-wage work, such as service-sector jobs and tipped employment, are one of the factors contributing to the gender pay gap. Women represent two-thirds of employees in low-wage work, so raising the minimum wage would instantaneously narrow the gender pay gap and lift women out of poverty (raising the minimum wage would also positively affect all low-wage workers regardless of gender).

The increasing prevalence of long working hours has harmed women’s employment because managing both work and home is a responsibility traditionally passed on to women. There is usually an ‘assumed’ expectation for them to flex their schedule and realign obligations more than their male partners. As a result, there is a difference in perspective on the work-life balance between men and women. I read a research paper called ‘The Gender Pay Gap,’ which goes into detail about the roles women and men are STILL expected to take on. The imbalance in work-life balance policies between men and women reinforces gender stereotypes and differences between paid and unpaid work. Working mothers suffer financially due to taking time off or working fewer hours than men for their children. It is crucial that BOTH parents, and not only women, use work-life balance measures to participate in family and work. Indeed, limited use of work-life balance measures by men can amplify conventional gender stereotypes in society, exacerbating the gender pay gap. The research paper tackles all of these points, which is why I chose to incorporate the article into my proposal. I feel it enhances my paper and my argument about why the pay gap should close.

In order to continue to argue my point, I am going to research articles and discuss ways to improve my research with my peers. From the research I did for this paper, I learned it’s easier than ever to close the gender pay gap. Despite women still being perforated into the generalization that they are the ‘home-carers’ and should be the ones who take care of all home responsibilities, women are also encouraged to receive an education and their income. People may argue that women should find ‘the positivity’ in this pay gap because it helps bolster women’s work performance and strengthen the economy. However, I think women who receive the same schooling for the same degree should receive the same payment. The gender pay gap should not exist, and we should follow these steps to narrow the pay gap and eventually close it.

MLA
“The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap: Aauw Report.” AAUW, 20 Sept. 2021, https://www.aauw.org/resources/research/simple-truth/
Adminenergy. “9 Steps to Close the Gender Pay Gap on Equal Pay Day.” Energy Resourcing, 13 July 2022, https://energyresourcing.com/blog/close-gender-pay-gap-on-equal-pay-day
Tatiana Follett and Iris Hentze, Lesley Kennedy. The Gender Pay Gap, https://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/the-gender-pay-gap.aspx
Adviser, Colin Seeberger Senior, et al. “7 Actions That Could Shrink the Gender Wage Gap.” Center for American Progress, 21 June 2016, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/7-actions-that-could-shrink-the-gender-wage-gap/
“Tackling the Gender Pay Gap: From Individual Choices to Institutional Change.” UN Women – Headquarters, https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2016/3/the-persistence-of-the-gender-pay-gap.
AbigailJHess. “8 Steps Economists Say Could Help Close the Gender Pay Gap.” CNBC, CNBC, 9 May 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/09/8-steps-economists-say-could-help-close-the-gender-pay-gap.html