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Gender Wage Gap

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GENDER WAGE GAP

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays there are a lot of women graduates from universities, master programs and colleges. Also some studies showed that women are doing better in school then men (Buchmann, 2006). So why are women still not getting paid equally as men? We see that the gap is getting narrower and narrower throughout the years. However, pay gap between men and women still exist. After World War II, women were paid 60% of what men paid. This situation got better in 2000s. Studies showed that in 2009, women earn 80% of what men earn after one year they graduate from college (Day and Hill, 2007). Even though women's level of education is getting higher throughout the years, this improvement is not enough to getting pay equally as men. Women are continuing to earn less than men on average, and the convergence is not enough to compensate the gap in the upcoming years. This paper focuses on the worldwide gender pay gap and it gives general insights about the issue. I will try to explain the reasons of the gender pay gap between men and women.

At the first part, I will briefly look at the issue historically. I will try to explain the trends of pay gay throughout the years. I will analyze the gender wage gap starting from the post World War II period.

At the second part, I will explain some theories and studies about the reasons of gender wage gap.

Some theories attribute this situation to “gender-specific” factors which are basically family-related responsibilities that women have. These responsibilities effect women’s decisions about their education, occupation and the “work experience” that women accumulate.

Some theories attribute it to “segregation of jobs in the marketplace” which means classifying women and men in different occupational groups. I will mention both about

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