Why Men Make More Money?
Men make more money for several reasons, some are logical and some are not. Some jobs require a physical strength and are dangerous, therefore for the most part only men will be in those positions. If a woman comes in and has the same amount of endurance and strength, she will be undervalued because people will assume she cannot do it. But once people see women in the roles doing the same job equally or better, that stigma will slowly be removed. You can see that today in the world, women CEOs, women owned businesses, more women are in college these days than men, the world is slowly changing but it takes time.
Outside of the old fashion values and notions, there are certain things that will hold women back or at least keep the average salary down. Men do not want to be “Merry Maids” or do housework for a living. Many women on the other hand that are facing divorce, single motherhood, or maybe just needs to earn extra income for the family will take that type of job. Those jobs earn less, they are temporary with high turnover and therefore it creates an industry of thousands of workers that are primarily women and very low pay!
Now step outside of the women dominated industries and step inside of number crunching. In the old state of mind, men went to work and women staid at home, cooked, cleaned and watched the children. Men dominated the workforce. Then women started to enter the workforce and the old fashioned mentality was that men are the earners and women should stay at home. Therefore, men had the good salaried jobs. Now women are dominating the workforce, single mothers, divorce’s, or for a dual income. It is hard to break into a mans world.
Companies also calculate the cost of employees. Single mothers typically stay with companies for a very long time and this is considered a good thing. But then they often take more sick time for their children and activities, then when they get sick and women have menstral cycles which can compound the amount of sick time. Then if they get pregnant, huge health care costs and a very long period of time off work where they cannot be fired but the job still must be done. Men get time off and incur large health care costs when their spouses have babies, however they are only gone for a few weeks and then they are back.
Negotiation skills: sometimes all it takes is a good set of negotiation skills. Employers normally look and men and women the same in this day in age. They want to underpay their employees, lower costs mean greater profit, and therefore the person who will settle for less or has poor negotiation skills will inevitably get less. This has nothing to do with the sex of the person and I feel is the equal playing ground for everyone.
I am a man, my wife is a home maker, and I think that everyone should get paid what they are worth. That worth is determined by your education, experience, and your negotiating skills. It also depends on how and when you get the job. I think that it is fair for a man to be paid more for the same job as long as the basis was education or negotiating skills and I am also perfectly ok with a women getting paid more than a man for the same reasons. I do not think the new law will help much except create more law suits and animosity. We cannot let the system control everything or else we will slowly move to Socialism where the government dictates what we get. I want the freedom to earn more based on my hard work and that freedom can be there for everyone. If women are doctors, CEOs, and own business before this law was enacted, it shows it is possible for anyone to obtain what they want they just need to do it! Don’t sue your employer, quit and find a company that will pay you what you are worth.