Income Disparities of Women in the Workplace

Income Disparities of women in the Workplace

The existence of male-female income and gender discrimination in the workplace has been noted in countless countries. Over the past few decades, laws barring discrimination in education and employment have helped give workingwomen many opportunities that our mothers never had. Because of these opportunities, women began working in many different fields, each requiring different skills and experience with different pay wages. Although these opportunities has opened many doors for working women all over the world, the doors for pay discrimination still remains tightly shut for women in the workplace. While significant progress has been attained in furthering gender discrimination between men and women in the workplace, countries such as the United Stated and Japan still seems to be reluctant, to grant true income equality in towards women compared to their male counterparts.

Thirty years ago women earned just over half the pay of their male counterparts. This was supposed to be resolved with the passage of the federal Equal Pay Act of 1963. Under this act, employers must pay women the same as men for work that is "substantially equal." Additionally, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which covers employers with 15 or more workers, prohibits pay differences based on gender and bars discrimination against women in hiring, promotion, training, discipline and other job aspects . Despite the existence of such laws, unfortunately workingwomen continue to earn less than men.

It's extremely obvious that women have come a long way in the labor force ever since the 19th century. At present time, women account for nearly half the nation's workforce, but due to pay discrimination there has been a wage gap that does not seem to close between men and women. For instance, the typical workingwomen in Japan earns 63 percent of the average man's pay . While in the United States, the average American woman earns about 74 cents for every dollar the average man earns . In comparing these figures, Japanese women are at even more of a disadvantage in the workplace than their peers in the United States.

As stated above, laws have been in placed for years that strictly prohibit any type of discrimination in the workplace. So why does the wage disparity persist? In Japan, it is because of traditional expectations that women marry young and devote themselves to child rearing. This factor is always usually the case with Japanese women, however number of women who continue careers after marriage is growing, but companies have been slow to accommodate their needs for child care or maternity leave . In The Detroit News Journal, Yuko Fukawa of the women's bureau at the Labor Ministry states, "Japanese management is entirely centered around men. It's almost impossible for women to keep their full-time jobs as soon as they have children, because there is virtually no corporate support" (http://ldt.stanford.edu/~house7/passport/kimiko.pdf).

In Western industrialized countries such as the United States, the more education women receive the more likely they are to work. However, in Japan, it is interesting to note that education does not seem to be a determining factor when it comes to promotions and or high salaries compared to male counterparts. For example, many female graduates from universities faced a series of difficulties in locating employment as compared to similarly qualified male graduates. Offers of employment received by women were simply not equal . Another reason why Japanese