Gender Pay Gap Introduction

World War II opened the door for women to enter the workspace due to the large number of vacated positions that were available while the males of the country were overseas. Since this initial entry, rate of employed women has been steadily increasing. However, data shows that, on average, women have not been equally compensated since 1979 at the latest and this social issue has been dubbed the “gender pay gap”. Those who support this issue claim that women have been historically paid less on the dollar compared to their male counterparts due to conscious or subconscious discrimination secondary to long standing gender roles and responsibilities. There is debate on the validity of these claims and many have questioned the analysis of the data presented; claiming that these views exclude certain variables that can account for these differences. While it is clear that there is a difference between pay, the underlying source of this disparity has not been readily identified.