For hundreds of years women have worked for less financial reward than their male counterparts. Legislation introduced in the latter part of the 1800's forced employers to pay women and men equal pay for the same job. However, it was not until 1970 that it became illegal for employers to differentiate wages on the basis of gender.
In 2000, women were paid 73 cents for every dollar men received. That's $27 less to spend on groceries, housing, child care and other expenses for every $100 worth of work we do. Nationwide, working families lose $200 billion of income annually to the wage gap.(aflcio).
According to the study, the number of women joining life sciences will find a gender pay gap: Men earn almost one-third more than women do -- $94,000 versus $72,000. The salary gap is greatest among academic administrators, where the midpoint is $120,000 for men and $75,000 for women; in industry and government, the pay is $160,000 for men and $125,000 for women.(equal).
Wage differentiation e.g. the difference in wages, has many economic implications. Human capital is the equivalence of economic capital, and is that injection of finance, time and effort that comprises an educated and productive human being. The higher the human capital, the more employable that person is, and hence the higher wage they can command from an employer. For example, someone with a college diploma can generally command a higher wage than someone who has left school with just a general equivalency diploma.
The gender discrimination argument states that women are either forced into lower paid jobs or are simply paid less than men for the same job. However, as labor is not a homogenous product differences in wages could be expected, and often this argument is formed on the basis of raw statistics e.g. X% of the workforce is women, Y% is men etc. However, these differences are also due to factors other than discrimination e.
