GENDER WAGE DISPARITY IN THE UNITED STATES: SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT V. LEGISLATIONS

Agnes Nora Eko Wahyu Utami

doi:10.22146/rubikon.v2i2.34256

GENDER WAGE DISPARITY IN THE UNITED STATES: SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXT V. LEGISLATIONS

https://doi.org/10.22146/rubikon.v2i2.34256

Agnes Nora Eko Wahyu Utami^(1*)

(1) STMIK AKAKOM
(*) Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the contributing factors to the persistence of gender pay disparity in American workforce despite decades of the enactment of progressive, federal legislations concerning on women’s wage. This study employed sociological approach and utilized qualitative research to achieve its predetermined objectives. Utilizing library research, data were gathered and analyzed using gender theory, particularly the theory of devaluation of women’s work. The results of this study indicated that prevalent American cultural values on gender roles and pay secrecy interfere with the federal legislations concerning on women’s wage. Meaning to say, the socio-cultural context where the legislations are applied and enforced seems to be, in some ways, contradictory to the legislations. The data of this study showed that in the workplace, cultural values on gender roles affected the decisions in hiring and during the employment, which further resulted in gender discriminatory practices (in general) and gender wage discrimination (in specific). Meanwhile, the prevalence of cultural values of not talking about salary reinforced employer’s policy against salary disclosure (PSC rules), which led to the hindrance of wage transparency that is in fact, in contradictory to what the legislations suggested. As a conclusion, gender wage disparity could not be cured solely with the enactment of federal legislations. Evolutionary changes in cultural values of the society are also significant in eliminating the gender wage disparity in American workforce.

Keywords: gender wage disparity, socio-cultural context, cultural values, federal legislations, pay secrecy

Full Text:

PDF

References

Andersen, J. (2006). The gender wage gap: Exploring the explanations (a report).Kansas State University.

Civil Rights Act of 1964. (1964) Pub. L. No. 88-352, sec. 2000, 78 Stat. 241.

Civil Rights Act of 1991. (1991). Pub. L. No. 102-166, sec. 102, 42 Stat. 1981.

Colella, A., Paetzold, R.L, Zardkoohi, A., & Wesson, M.J. (2007). Exposing pay secrecy. Academy of Management Review.32(1).55-71.

Collins, G. (2009). When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women. Newyork: Little, Brown and Company.

Crampton, S. M., Hodge, J.W., & Mishra, J.M. (1997). The equal pay act: the first 30 Years. Public Personnel Management 26(3), 335-345.

Day, J. C. & Rosenthal, J. (2008). Detailed Occupations and Median Earnings: 2008. US Census Bureau, American Community Survey.

Edwards, C.R, Reich, M., & Weisskopf, T.E. (1978). The capitalist system: a radical analysis of American society, 2nd Ed. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall,Inc.

Edwards, M. A. (2005). The law and social norms of pay secrecy. Berkeley Journal of Employment & Labor Law 26(1), 41-63.

England, P. (1992). From status attainment to segregation and devaluation. Contemporary Sociology 21(1), 643-647.

England, P. (2005). Gender inequality in labor markets: The role of motherhood and segregation. Social Politics 12, 264-288.

England, P., Budig, M. & Folbre, N. (2002). The wages of virtue: the relative pay of care work. Social Problems 49, 455-473.

England, P. & Folbre, N. (2005). Gender and economic sociology. In N.J . Smelser & R. Swedberg (Eds.) The handbook of economic sociology. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Equal Pay Act of 1963. (1963). Pub. L. No. 88-38, sec. 206(d), 77 Stat. 56, 59.

Fetisova, O. (2014). Effects of anti-secrecy pay laws on the gender wage gap (Undergraduate thesis). Department of Economics, University of Maryland.

Ford, L. E. (2006). Women and politics: the pursuit of equality, 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Gelly, R., & Bierman, L. (2003). Pay Secrecy/Confidentiality rules and The National Labor Relations Act. Journal of Labor and Employment Law 6(1), 121-156.

Greene, J. A. (2006). Blue collar women at work with men: negotiating the hostile environment. USA: Praeger Publishers.

Guy, M. E. (1993). Three steps forward, two steps backward: the status of women’s integration into public management. Public Administration Review 53 (4), 285 – 92.

Heilman, M. E. , Wallen, A.S., Fuchs, D. & Tamkins, M. (2004). Penalties for success: reactions to women who succeed at gender-typed tasks. Journal of Applied Psychology 89 (3), 416 – 442.

Hill, M. A., & Killingsworth, M. R. (1989). Comparable worth: analyses and evidence. Ithaca, N.Y.: ILR Press.

Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR). (2011, June). Pay secrecy and wage discrimination. Fact Sheet. Retrieved from http://www.iwpr.org/publications (11/04/2014).

Jacobs, J. A. (1989). Revolving doors: sex segregation and women’s careers. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Kilbourne, B.S., George, F., Kurt, B., Dorothea, W., & England, P. (1994). Return to skill, compensating differentials, and gender bias: effects of occupational characteristics on wages of white women and men. American Journal of Sociology 100 (2), 689-719.

Krippendorf, K. (1980). Content analysis: an introduction to its methodology. Beverly Hills, Calif: SAGE.

Kulich, C., Trojanowski, G., Ryan, M., Haslam, S., & Renneboog, L. (2010). Who gets the carrot and who gets the stick? Evidence of gender disparities in executive remuneration. ECGI Working Paper Series in Finance, Finance Working Paper 272. Retrieved from http://www.ecgi.org/wp (11/08/2014)

Lawler, E. E. (1967). Secrecy about management compensation: are there hidden costs? Organizational Behavior and Human Performance 2, 182–189.

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. (2009). Pub. L. No. 111-2, 123 Stat. 5.

Lyons, S. (2013). Why the law should intervene to disrupt pay-secrecy norms: analyzing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act through the lens of social norms. Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems, 361-390.

National Women’s Law Center (NWLC). (2012). The wage gap is stagnant in last decade (a fact sheet). Retrieved from www.nwlc.org (9/01/2014).

National Women’s Law Center (NWLC). (2014). Walmart v. Dukes: why the Supreme Court should stand with working women. Retrieved from http://www.nwlc.org/resource/wal-mart-vdukes (25/08/2014).

Noonan, M. C. (2001). The impact of domestic work on men’s and women’s wages. Journal of Marriage and Family 63 (4), 1134 – 1145.

O'Neill, B. P. (2010). Pay confidentiality: a remaining obstacle to Equal Pay after Ledbetter, Seton Hall Law Review 40(3), 1217-1256.

Parsley, B. M. n.d. In your heart, are you a Democrat or a Republican? Political parties: their philosophies, objectives, and the consequences of each for the United States.” The Southern Division CFRW & SDCFRW retrieved from http://www.cfrw.org (25/05/2014).

Polachek, S. W. (1981). Occupational self-selection: a human capital approach to sex differences in occupational structure. The Review of Economics and Statistics 63(1), pp. 60-69.

Reskin, B. F., and Roos, P. A. (1990). Job queues, gender queues. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Rhode, D. L. (1991). Justice and Gender: Sex Discrimination and the Law. USA: Harvard University Press.

Seymour, R. T. (1992). How to stem the erosion. Human Rights: Journal of the Section of Individual Rights & Responsibilities 19(3), 12.

Siebens, R., & Ryan, C.L. (2012, February). Fields of bachelor’s degree in the United States: 2009. American Community Survey (ACS) Reports. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/acs (14/11/2014).

Steinberg, R. (1990). Social construction of skill: gender, power, and comparable worth. Work and Occupations 17, 449-482.

Stivers , C . (1993). Gender images and public administration:legitimacy and the administrative state. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). (2005). Women in the labor force: a data book. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/cps/wlfdatabook.2005.pdf (22/08/2014).

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). (2013, October). Highlights of Women’s Earnings in 2012. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov (22/08/2014).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22146/rubikon.v2i2.34256