The wage gap is not an issue

Today we will be discussing a topic of common controversy known as the wage gap. The wage gap is defined as “average difference between the remuneration for men and women who are working.”

The way the wage gap is commonly found is through adding up the estimated wages of all men and women, then dividing it by the sampled amount of people. The numbers we get after doing this is that for every dollar a man makes the average women will get 83.7 cents. https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2023/06/21/on-anniversary-of-equal-pay-act-signs-of-progress-and-remaining-challenges-for-women-in-the-labor-market/

Well at first this certainly appears like a very large issue, women should be making the same amount as men right? Well a common misconception about the wage gap is that women make less then men whilst working at the same job, which ain’t true. We can attribute the wage gap to many things which we will be exploring today.

It is a fact that men and women are drawn to different jobs, because even though we are the same species men and women’s job ideals are different. Men are much more likely to choose a higher paying job even if they don’t actually enjoy it as much. In fact Men choose jobs averaging a salary $13,635 higher than what most women would choose. https://www.hrdive.com/news/glassdoor-men-more-likely-than-women-to-go-after-high-paying-jobs/551502/#:~:text=Glassdoor%20data%20showed%20that%20men,women%20looking%20for%20similar%20jobs.

Why do men choose higher paying jobs? 

From the beginning of time men have been the protector in the family structure. This is because men are naturally stronger than their female counterparts. Today such a role as a protector is not needed, but hard, physically demanding jobs are still plentiful so men are drawn to these jobs. These jobs are high paying due to their high difficulty, jobs like construction workers, police, and movers. Women can still work in these areas but men will always dominate them due to their natural strength.

Men are much more competitive in the workplace, when a man and a woman of equal education work the same job they will be payed the same. Although it turns out that men are 94% more likely to apply for a job that is dependent on out performing their coworkers. Competitive jobs are extremely highly paying. These competitive jobs are mainly sales which make an average of $38 and sales is the 3rd highest paying job field without a college degree. 

Although the wage gap exists it does not mean that women of equal qualifications will be paid less then men, it only means that men go for better paying jobs, and women go for more full-filling jobs.

Women’s choice of career is completely due to their own choices. So they have completely equal education to men as long as they choose to do so. This paired with my last argument shows that the wage gap is not an issue because it simply is a result of different career paths