European Network of Experts on Employment

Running head: GENDER PAY GAP
GENDER PAY GAP
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author’s name

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Executive Summary
The aim of the project is to highlight the causes of the gender gap prevailing all over the world. It
tries to study the recent tribunal case, which shows how gender discrimination is being practiced
in companies and how women have raised voice over the issue. It studies the causes of poverty
and unemployment, among which is on a high among the older group of females. The project
concludes that the recent reports show greater participation of women for negating their salaries
and raising their voice for equal opportunities and pay scale as men have.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
The role of the negative stereotype..............................................................................................3
Working in lower-paid jobs.........................................................................................................4
Ways in which performance is rated...........................................................................................6
Negotiating salaries.....................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The gender pay gap is the difference between the wages of an individual on the basis of
gender. The earnings of women are generally lower than the earnings of men. The gender gap
can reduce the willingness of women to work independently. Women face several problems
because of the gender gap. The factors which increase the gender gap in society are
discrimination on the basis of gender. The competency of the women is not valued equally as
men (Boll and Lagemann 2019). History shows that women have always faced discrimination in
terms of payment. In the UK, women were not given equal wages like men, and also there were
not entitled to unemployment benefits like men in the year 1920. In the year 1968, women again
revolted for receiving equal pay. The women workers of Ford plant in the city Dagenham started
strike because they were receiving less than 90% of wages paid to men. The work of women's
pay was considered unskilled. Despite the continuous strike from women workers, the company
agreed to pay them 92% of wages that were paid to men. This is still an unequal payment of
wages and can be considered gender discrimination by creating a gender pay gap.
Discussion
The role of the negative stereotype
One of the main causes of the gender pay gap is the stereotype mentality of society. The
competency of women is always undervalued than men. Stereotype thinking can also be seen in
the corporate culture, where women are not getting promotions and are not given managerial
roles. Some organization questions the status of women as a mother. They view the women who
are mothers as less committed to their work. The other stereotype mentality that we see around is
the starting salary of men is higher than women. The allocation of works also differs on the basis

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of gender. For example, women are mostly seen as teachers, while men can be seen in many
professional fields, such as engineers and scientists (Smith 2018).
Recent tribunal examples- In the year 2012, in the city named as Birmingham city council,
women fought against their rights of equal pay. The women workers who were working as cooks
and care staff were not given bonuses like the men workers. The women were denied this
benefit. Later on, they won this case and received compensation for the bonus which was not
given. As per Kate, who is an associate director at Peninsula, expressed her views that
companies must know the consequences of committing gender biasness. They can end up paying
unlimited penalty and compensation if they are accused of doing so, and the charge gets proved
(Oczki 2016).
How older women are affected in relation to the gender pay gap- the importance of skills and
talent, do not see the men and women. These are mental abilities that anyone can have. It is sad
to see that old woman donot get much chance to expose their skills and talent after attaining a
certain age that is above 45 years. One of the studies shows that men get more career options
even after the age of 50 years. As per Kate, who is an associate director at Peninsula, expressed
her views that companies must know the consequences of committing gender biasness. They can
end up paying unlimited penalty and compensation if they are accused of doing so, and the
charge gets proved (Guest, R., 2018).
Working in lower-paid jobs
As per the International Labour Organization, women receive lesser wage payments as
compared to men for the same comparable job. The organization says that women's participation
in economic activity has increased and can reach to half of the workforce (Graf, Brown and
Patten 2018). However, the lifestyle and the living condition of women do not improve as per

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their demography is improving in the workforce. This happens because of one reason that
women are paid lesser than men for the same job role (Pacheco and Cochrane 2017).
Recent tribunal examples- As per the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Aileen Rizo v. Jim
Yovino, Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, it was recognized by the court that no
company could pay women less payment as compared to male workers just because she was paid
less in her previous job. The employers cannot compare the previous salary of women for paying
the current salary. If the company does so, the act will be considered as sex discrimination. The
amendment is yet pending to be passed from the US Supreme Court. In 2018, Jones day was
accused of doing gender discrimination. The lawsuit was filed by a previous partner and accused
that it uses a black box compensation system (Nygård et al. 2017). It paid less payment to female
attorneys, but the company denied the allegations. As per the equal pay act, the law by the
federal government has made it a compulsion that women and men will receive equal pay for
equal work. But the above case depicts that the recent tribunal cases show that the gender pay
gap still exists in society (Quintana-Garcia and Elvira 2017).
How older women are affected in relation to the gender pay gap- Inequalities can be seen in
the earnings of the women depending on the age group they belong to. One of the research
studies showed that women face more poverty than men in the later stage of their life. As per
(European Commission, 2013a; Frericks and Maier, 2008; Ginn, 2004), women are
discriminated against while paying pensions also. The gender pay gap in terms of pension should
not be made because women have higher life expectancy than men (Bergmann et al. 2016). The
poverty rate is also high among older women than men. This is also a major concern that there
should be equality in paying equal pensions to old women. The research of the ILO also shows
that the employment opportunities for women are concentrated within a limited sector and these

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are such sectors where getting employment is easier. These are the sectors where regulations are
minimum for gender equality, and thus, exploitation of women by lesser wages are common
phenomena (Bennedsen et al. 2018).
Ways in which performance is rated
The choices of men and women are different sometimes concerning their careers. The
women are loaded with family responsibilities that they often leave their career goals and end up
doing a job in a small or medium-sized company. On the other hand, men do not give preference
to their family responsibility. First, they think the career is important for doing the rest of the
things in their life. Most of the employers think that women will generally take more career gaps
than men in the name of family responsibility. Secondly, it is also considered that the dedication
and commitment that men show to their job is less shown by women. This is the main cause of
rating their work lower than men and providing them low wages (Maume, Heymann and
Ruppanner 2019).
Recent tribunal examples- In 2014, more than thousands of female employees of Microsoft
filed suit against the company concerning gender discrimination. The lawsuit was actually a class
action suit. The women employees claimed that women were paid less than the men in the
organization. The complaints involved sexual harassment and gender discrimination. The lawsuit
was against the calibration system of the company. It was also claimed that there were two bands
of the pay scale and work level. The women were kept in the lower group, which means although
they increase their efficiency, they won’t be paid like men in the upper band. The court overruled
the case by saying it was a class action suit, but each woman had a different issue. The take away
is that at each level of society, the majority of the population is more, which makes getting equal
pay more difficult for women.

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How older women are affected in relation to the gender pay gap- The rate of gender pay gap
increases with the age of a woman. In recent times, women are also equally educated, like men.
However, if the gender pay gap exists in any organization, employers give the excuse that the
working hours of women are comparatively lower than men. Moreover, women make career
breaks, and a long career without breaks make men earn more than women. Women at their
younger age manage with a low salary but unable to save for the future. At their old age, they
most likely to depend on their husband for living expenses. If, due to any cause, the husband
dies, older women see extreme poverty and do not get the option of new employment
opportunities (Auspurg, Hinz, and Sauer 2017).
Negotiating salaries
In the recent world, the gap which was persisting between the salaries of the men and
women now is diminishing. However, it cannot be said that parity has been achieved. As per the
census bureau, among the salary recipients in 2008, the percentage of salary that women received
was 77% of the amount which were paid to the men (Park 2016). As per the managing partner of
the firm specialized in training women to negotiate for their remuneration effectively named as
‘Negotiating Women,’ there are several causes of not negotiating salaries by women. One of the
main cause that he mentioned is the unwillingness of women for not advocating for themselves.
Women find it difficult to negotiate for their salaries, whereas it is a simple and easy task for
men (Smith 2010).
Recent tribunal examples- One of the recent researches conducted by the American
Association of University, women also negotiate for their salaries as men do. However, they are
hardly heard by their employers. The study showed that the salary paid to women were more
than 6.5% lower than the amount paid to men. As per the court case, female employees filed 118

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complaints about gender bias between 2010 and 2016 in Microsoft. The company only
considered one of them to have any merit. (Microsoftgendercase.com 2020).
How older women are affected in relation to the gender pay gap- women who are of age
group 46 and above find very less career opportunities as compared to men. They do not get the
chance to negotiate their salary either. This phenomenon of getting fewer chances of jobs and
negotiation of salaries is termed as an opportunity gap. As per a report released by Payscale.com,
people of age group 20 to 29 years, 76% of women were individual contributor roles while at the
age group of 30 to 40 years of age, the percentage of women reaching managerial roles were
much higher than women. Women of age group 46 and above, only 6% of women reached to the
level of the executive role which was much lower than men, which was 12%.
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that whether the individuals are employed in a similar job role and
may have the same level of qualification, there is a difference between the pay-scale of two
individuals on the basis of gender. Women are put in the lower pay-scale while men are put in,
the higher pay-scale. The problem persists in the minds of the society that undervalue the work
of women. In spite of several laws protecting women's rights and insists on paying equal rights,
the actual chances to sue a case against employer and winning it is not an easy task for women.
The project also concludes that the discrimination on the basis of gender is more among the older
women (Fortin, Bell and Böhm 2017). They are the most common sufferers of gender pay
discrimination. It also studies how poverty is more among older women as compared to men. It
finds out the reasons for the gender discrimination and why the work of women is underrated.
The project also concludes that the long practice of gender pay discrimination has made the
women think that they are made for middle-level organizations, which will be easily accessible

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for them like teaching jobs. Today’s generation of women are equally qualified like men but still
sexual discrimination can be seen in the corporate culture.

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References
Auspurg, K., Hinz, T. and Sauer, C., 2017. Why should women get less? Evidence on the gender
pay gap from multifactorial survey experiments. American Sociological Review, 82(1), pp.179-
210.
Bennedsen, M., Simintzi, E., Tsoutsoura, M. and Wolfenzon, D., 2018. Do firms respond to
gender pay gap disclosure?.
Bergmann, N., Danzer, L., Sorger, C., Gago, E.G., Gergorić, M., Jochmann-Döll, A., Levačić,
D., Osila, L., Rombouts, M., Scheele, A. and Tkalčec, A., 2016. Gender Pay Gap.
Boll, C. and Lagemann, A., 2019. The Gender Pay Gap in EU Countries—New Evidence Based
on EU-SES 2014 Data. Intereconomics, 54(2), pp.101-105.
content/uploads/Microsoft_Gender_Second_Amended_Complaint.pdf (Accessed: 28 March
2020).
Fortin, N.M., Bell, B. and Böhm, M., 2017. Top earnings inequality and the gender pay gap:
Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Labour Economics, 47, pp.107-123.
Graf, N., Brown, A. and Patten, E., 2018. The narrowing, but persistent, gender gap in pay. Pew
Research Center, April, 9.
Guest, R., 2018. The real gender pay gap. Policy: A Journal of Public Policy and Ideas, 34(2),
p.3.
Maume, D.J., Heymann, O. and Ruppanner, L., 2019. National Board Quotas and the Gender
Pay Gap among European Managers. Work, Employment and Society, 33(6), pp.1002-1019.
Microsoftgendercase.com. Available at: http://microsoftgendercase.com/wp-

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Miller, K. and Vagins, D.J., 2018. The simple truth about the gender pay gap. American
Association of University Women.
Nygård, M., Härtull, C., Wentjärvi, A. and Jungerstam, S., 2017. Poverty and old age in
Scandinavia: A problem of gendered injustice? Evidence from the 2010 GERDA Survey in
Finland and Sweden. Social Indicators Research, 132(2), pp.681-698.
Oczki, J., 2016. Gender pay gap in Poland. Ekonomia międzynarodowa, (14), pp.106-113.
Pacheco, G., Li, C. and Cochrane, B., 2017. Empirical evidence of the gender pay gap in NZ
(No. 2017-05).
Park, Y., 2016. A Microdata Analysis of the Gender Pay Gap in South Korea: How do social
norms and gender role attitudes affect the labor force participation of Korean women?.
Quintana-Garcia, C. and Elvira, M.M., 2017. The effect of the external labor market on the
gender pay gap among executives. Ilr Review, 70(1), pp.132-159.
Smith, M., 2010. Analysis note: The gender pay gap in the EU-What policy responses. EGGE-
European Network of Experts on Employment and Gender Equality issues, 21.
Smith, R., 2018. Gender pay gap in the UK: 2018. Newport: ONS.