1. Running head: PAY GAP IS BECAUSE OF GENDER, NOT JOBS 1
Pay Gap Is Because of Gender, Not Jobs
Alotaibi, Alanood
University of North Texas
2/12/2014

2. PAY GAP IS BECAUSE OF GENDER, NOT JOBS
Miller, Claire Cain. "Pay Gap Is Because of Gender, Not Jobs." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 23 Apr. 2014. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
Claire Cain Miller’s article in The New York Times is titled, “Pay Gap Is Because of
Gender, Not Jobs”, contrary to the popular belief held by many republican politicians that the
reason women are paid less than men is because they choose to be. Miller explain that the ”pay gap
between men and women actually comes from differences within occupations, not between them —
and widens in the highest-paying ones like business, law and medicine, according to data from
Claudia Goldin, a Harvard University labor economist and a leading scholar on women and the
economy”. Goldin is quoted saying “There is a belief, which is just not true, that women are just in
bad occupations and if we just put them in better occupations, we would solve the gender gap
problem”.
In the course we have taken the earning differences by gender and we learned the concept of
Labor Market Discrimination, which means that the individual workers with the same productive
characteristics are treated differently because of the demographic group for which they belong. In
fact, Miller presents data within several individual job categories after controlling for age, race,
hours and education: Female doctors and surgeons earn 71 percent of men’s wages, female financial
specialists make 66 percent of their male counterparts, and female lawyers and judges make 82
percent of men in the same field. She then examined specific job areas that have been able to
narrow or even close the pay gap. Female pharmacists manage to make 91 percent of male
pharmacists earnings. Computer programmers and other jobs in technology report women making
90 percent. And male and female tax preparers, ad sales agents and human resources specialists
were found to make equivalent salaries.
Second, we also learned that there are two types of Labor Market Discrimination, which are
wage discrimination and occupational discrimination. The first type, wage discrimination, occurs if
women who have the same experience, occupation, and working condition earn less than men: this
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3. PAY GAP IS BECAUSE OF GENDER, NOT JOBS
condition isn’t include in Miller article. The second type is the type that Miller have most discussed,
occupational discrimination, occurs if women tend to have the lower-paying occupations because
employers reserve the lower-paying occupations for women. In fact, the employer’s action of
reserving the lower paying jobs for women and as a result the higher paying jobs for men due to
many reasons.
First of all the higher-paying jobs that skill-based jobs like surgery cannot easily substitute
for one worker for another and produce large disparities in pay between them which means the
person who works in these type of jobs tend to have less flexibility in terms of hours and location.
However, women with children want the most flexibility jobs that remotely or at odd hours to
maximize their time at home with their family. Therefore, employers reserve the higher-paying jobs
for men.
The other reason is the value that men and women placed on the jobs that are flexible in
hours work. In fact, Women not only work in different occupations, but they also work fewer hours
in the workplace: 35 minutes less per day than men, among full-time working men and
women.1 What accounts for that difference in time? Interestingly, when home and childcare work is
taken into account, the time gap looks very different. Employed mothers with a child under age 6
spend about 47 more minutes per day caring for and helping household members, compared to
employed fathers. Parents of older children also have a caring time gap, though it is smaller—about
22 minutes per day. The data suggest that women’s reduction in work hours can be accounted for
when taking into consideration the fact that women provide more unpaid care in the home, at least
in homes with children.2
While the fact that full-time working women put in fewer hours on average certainly affects
the wage gap, the penalty women pay for working less is not as straightforward as a simple
subtraction in hourly wages. Harvard economist Claudia Goldin has found that in some well-paid
occupations, such as business and law, people who work very long hours receive a disproportionate
increase in their wages—which means that those who work fewer hours receive disproportionately
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4. PAY GAP IS BECAUSE OF GENDER, NOT JOBS
lower pay. In these types of jobs, for example, working 20 percent fewer hours results in a reduction
in compensation of more than 20 percent. Another example is the lower who works 80 hours a week
at would earn more than a lower who works a 40 hours a week. In fact, occupations in which
employees can easily substitute in hours have the slimmest pay gaps. Therefore, employers reserve
the lower-paying jobs for women.
In conclusion, Miller makes a solid case for this idea, however I believe that gender equality
that causes the pay gap has its roots within the world of academia. It’s easy to see how opting out of
the workforce for years or even decades could affect one’s earning potential, but it’s important to
understand that it doesn’t have to be this way. All kinds of experts have weighed in on how
women can fight against the powers that be and close the gender wage gap. Women should pressure
the government into promoting policies that end gender discrimination and ensure equal pay. For
example, we should support policies like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which makes it easier for
women to sue their employers if they feel they’ve been unfairly discriminated against. Women
obviously have a lot of work to do when it comes to advocating and insisting on a system that
ensures equal pay for equal work. Lifestyle choices and parenthood do play a factor in women’s
earnings. However, it also proves that women’s earnings, even when accounting for those things,
aren’t always where they should be.
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5. PAY GAP IS BECAUSE OF GENDER, NOT JOBS
Referenced
Miller, Claire Cain. "Pay Gap Is Because of Gender, Not Jobs." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 23 Apr. 2014. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
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6. PAY GAP IS BECAUSE OF GENDER, NOT JOBS
Referenced
Miller, Claire Cain. "Pay Gap Is Because of Gender, Not Jobs." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 23 Apr. 2014. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
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