Economic logic gaps between men and women employer discrimination PDF

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EC 210Explain why both economic logic and the factual record do NOT support the notion that pay gaps between men and women stem mainly from employer discrimination.Discrimination can explain wage gaps if employers don’t care about profits and are obsessed with being unnecessarily generous to male em...

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EC 210 Explain why both economic logic and the factual record do NOT support the notion that pay gaps between men and women stem mainly from employer discrimination. Discrimination can explain wage gaps if employers don’t care about profits and are obsessed with being unnecessarily generous to male employees. If an employer can hire women that are able to do the same job as men for 15 or 20 per cent less, then the profit motive will give a strong incentive to employers to hire women. Employers who are not sexist will take the opportunity and pay women less for labor to cut their wage cost. Many factors can explain the pay gaps between men and women. The comparison of average earnings between men and women is too crude a comparison to have any meaning. For example, in a hospital, the vast majority of nurses are female, while a majority of doctors are male. Therefore, the premium pay earned by doctors will dominate the data, making the hospital pay comparison by gender meaningless. After comparison of women and men with roughly equal education, it shows small difference. The gap is only about 6%. This can be due to the marital status. Married men were expected to be the family’s primary breadwinners, while married women were more responsible for running the households and rearing children. Married women are more involved in productive home activities, especially those with children, who earn far less. The 6 % gap can also be related to discrimination from co-workers or strong consumers’ bias, which reduces productivity. It is clear that lower productivity doesn’t have to imply lower ability. The 6 % gap may also not be related or have nothing to do with discrimination by anyone. The earning difference is also due to worker preferences. Individuals have different objectives in life. Some want to make huge amount of money. They are willing to work long hours, be trained for many years, sacrifice social and family life, and take risk to make money.

These individuals are highly motivated by monetary objectives and will do things necessary to command higher wage rates. Evidence has shown that women are less motivated by money than men on average. Women care and worry more about the location and job conditions such as job safety and flexibility. More than 90% of workplace facilities happen to men. Riskier jobs pay a "combat pay" premium that many men habitually pursue, while most women avoid them. Whether male or female, being offered too little for the labor services is like being offered too little for the car. Individuals should take responsibility and market themselves to find a better buyer. If people can’t find a better buyer then maybe, they should improve the product. Discrimination doesn’t have to get gone to help people rise the gap. Brutal force to raise the price won’t help. If individuals want to use laws to help, then they can provide housing voucher, subsidies, income etc. However, if more and more employers substituted women for men workers, the female-male gap would close....