The causes of the wage gap between men and women in the United States Research Paper

The causes of the wage gap between men and women in the United States - Research Paper Example Recent statistics show that a typical American female employee working full time gets an estimated 77 cents for each dollar paid to a male worker. This implies that women make approximately 77 percent of the wage earned by men working the same duration of time. The latter statistic is annual, while weekly data places this estimate at about 82.1 percent. Irrespective of the varying nature of the statistics, the irrefutable fact is that there is significant inequality between men and women in terms of wage allotment. The gender-oriented wage disparity has spurred interest among scholars and other stakeholders, to determine its possible causes. This paper provides insight into the wide array of causes of compensation inequality between the two sexes put forth by various scholars. Various approaches have been utilized by researchers to determine causative factors of the gender wage gap. Key among these approaches is multivariate statistical analysis, as well as, focused analysis of statistics. The former examines multiple variables to estimate the extent to which a combination of factors contributed to the general wage gap, while the latter examines specific determinants of wage adjustment aimed at catering for cost differences associated with various workers. From the multivariate perspective are possible causational factors like widespread discrimination in the American labor market, as denoted by scholars like Ruiz and Rivera (2009), as well as, occupational disparities pointed out by Boraas and Rodgers (2003). These and other potential causes of the gender compensation gap are addressed in detail in the subsequent subsections. Judging from trends in the work environment, women and men have opted for notably distinctive occupations. Consequently, the proportion of female workers varies significantly among diverse occupations. Various terms have been utilized by researchers to characterize this tendency including occupational sorting,