The Gender Wage Gap at Home and Abroad: Are We Making Progress? Why Does It Matter?

I am encouraged about the wealth of new research on the gender wage gap. There seem to be new studies published every few days on this important topic. What’s encouraging is that the spotlight is finally on this previously invisible problem. What’s not encouraging is that progress in closing the gender wage gap in the United States seems to be stalled. A recent article by Eric Morath in the Wall Street Journal reports that “the gender pay gap is widening again because men’s earnings are growing this year at twice the rate of women’s.”  Consequently, the earnings of full-time female workers in the United State dropped to 81.1 cents for every dollar a man earned in the third quarter of 2015 from 83.5 cents during the same period in 2014. This issue of a gender pay gap is not just an issue of fairness. A recent report published in The Economist cites McKinsey research showing that the world economy would be $28.4 trillion (or 26 percent) richer if more women participated in the workforce and were paid equitably. The GDP in the United States would rise by 5 percent with increased gender parity in the workforce, along with other benefits for men and organizations that I have written about in a previous article. Let’s keep the spotlight on the gender pay gap both at home and abroad. It is only by being aware of it and insisting on transparency that governments and organizations will be forced to focus on equalizing access and pay for women.   Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net]]>