The pay gap has fallen and women are outperforming men, even girls are doing better at school than their male peers. These improvements aren’t expressed by the wages because women working full-time are earning 17 pct less than men. This implies a systematic bias against women and therefore stronger government interference is required.
A lot of women are postponing children or want fewer of them because motherhood is a barrier to wage equality.This results from the fact that women are eager to improve their relative earning power. However, not every difference between men and women can be explained that easily. Married men have higher wages than their spouses, although single men earn the same or even less than single women. Furthermore, gay men are slightly more paid than straight men. In the end, it all comes down to the education and the job people have.
Men have higher wages because they take risks and are more likely to lose their jobs or suffer a major injury at work. They also work more flexible hours and are more likely to work outside. Unlike men, women want fixed hours and are less likely to move jobs in attempt of higher pay.
Moreover, the government policies to reduce the gender pay gap may result in a new one. It is a gap between work-rich and work-poor households. This implies that if women would have an increased wage, the work-rich households would earn more. Unlike them, the work-poor households have no income. Thus the difference will be enlarged. (Times)
In my opinion, the gender pay gap should be reduced but not to the prejudice of the work-poor households.
Nathalie De Smet
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