Gender Equality: is it something we have actually achieved, or it’s just a delusion staggering around in our society? It’s ironical how people cheer for modernity and equality and women are still prone to gender disparity. If we go a little deeper into the matter, we’ll find that the situation is not sorted yet.
“We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality. It isn’t a reality yet. Today, women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change.”
– Beyoncé
Gender prejudice still persists in every walk of life. Be it a personal, societal or professional area, women suffer due to sexism in all of them. Females are paid considerably less than male counterparts even if they have same qualification, experience, and position.
If talk about facts, the United States Department of Labour clearly depicts, the median weekly salary of women is much lesser than that of men in the same profession.
The worst paying jobs for women, or to say it better, jobs paying less to women than man, exists in ample. Women’s median annual earnings stubbornly remain about 20 percent below men’s.
A report of business insider (based on a survey by Glassdoor) indicates that tech industry is the worst when it comes to discrimination in pay cheques on the basis of sexism. It enlisted ten tech jobs where women are paid less in comparison to men.
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The graph depicts the gender gap between 89 major occupations across the UK. It is based on the analysis of Michael Page, the specialist recruitment company (UK).
Though women outnumber men when acquiring a degree from universities, there lies a huge gap between their pay cheques. In 2015, full-time female workers (in the US) made only 79 cents for every dollar earned by men leading to a gender wage gap of 21 percent.
Though the debate is likely to rage on, it’s clear that gender-based pay gaps exist in most occupations. Here are the 15 jobs that have the biggest gender wage gaps. These jobs are so enlisted on the basis of their re-occurrence on various portals.
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Computer Programmers
Women median weekly earnings: $ 1302
Men median weekly earnings: $ 1501
Difference: $ 199
Glassdoor, an online job information firm, avowed that when talking about gender wage gap, male computer engineers are paid almost 30 percent more than their female parallels. It further proclaimed that gender disparity is at its worst in the case of computer programmers in America.
Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor’s chief economist, says – “I don’t think there are any examples of technical jobs where there is a pay advantage for women.”
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Real Estate Brokers & Sales Agents
Women median weekly earnings: $ 735
Men median weekly earnings: $ 1052
Difference: $ 317
A real estate broker is authorized to manage his/her real estate property whereas a sales agent works with brokers. Both deal in real estate property and get commissions for cracking a deal. As per a report by 24/7 wallSt. – Females earn $ 371 less than males in this profession, which is less than what majority of males are earning in this profession.
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Bartenders
Women median weekly earnings: $ 459
Men median weekly earnings: $ 634
Difference: $ 175
Females have ruled this profession since a long time. According to Labor Statistics Bureau report 2012, 60 % of American bartenders are women. In spite of such high female ratio this profession is infected with the age-old gender pay gap. The Female bartenders make 15 percent less than male bartenders.
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Human Resource Managers
Women median weekly earnings: $ 1300
Men median weekly earnings: $ 1827
Difference: $ 527
Human Resource Managers are responsible for the overall hiring process of an organization. They manage and supervise the personnel department of the business. It has been cited as one of top 10 professions for women in 2011. It was stated that women hold 71% share in this profession. But, when compared the earnings, women earn only 80% of what males earn.
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Retail Salespersons
Women median weekly earnings: $ 494
Men median weekly earnings: $ 694
Difference: $ 200
The retail industry that proffers employment to a large number of women pays them a paltry. A report by The Huffington Post states – on average women earned only 64% of what their male counterparts earned in the year 2012. While another report asserts that, women in sales and retail jobs need to work 103 days extra to earn equivalent to what their male colleagues earn in a year.
Read: 7 Thought-Provoking Career Strategies For Women
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Top Executives
Women median weekly earnings: $ 1572
Men median weekly earnings: $ 2246
Difference: $ 674
Top executives perform the functions of planning, organizing, directing, and coordinating for the company. They are the top authorities of the company and get hefty pay cheques for their job. CEO’s are the highest paid professionals in a company but higher the pay; higher is the pay gap. When compared earnings on the basis of gender, male earnings surpassed that of females.
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Financial Managers
Women median weekly earnings: $ 1,130
Men median weekly earnings: $ 1,732
Difference: $ 602
A fact study by Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), United States, asserted that among the most typical female jobs, the gender pay gap is widest for financial managers. Out of 10 major occupations where women earn less, five are in finance. As per a study, 38% pay gap persists in the finance sector.
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Securities, Commodities, and Financial Service Sales Agents
Women median weekly earnings: $ 767
Men median weekly earnings: $ 1,461
Difference: $ 694
Securities, Commodities, and Financial Service Sales Agents prepare financial plans for individuals and organizations, depending on the sale and purchase of securities in the financial market. Though financial service agents are paid extremely well, women make half of what their male peers earn. According to the given median weekly earnings, women earn $ 694 less than men.
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Drivers/Sales Workers and Truck Drivers
Women median weekly earnings: $ 632
Men’s weekly median earnings: $ 751
Difference: $ 119
Drivers & sales workers travel long hauls, stay away from families, and do a lot of lifting and carrying. All these factors make it widely male-dominating. Only a few number of females get engaged in this job as they are expected to be responsible for family and household work, explained Ariane Hegewisch, a study director at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (United States). Therefore, low female engagement in this profession creates an earning gap between male and female drivers or sales workers.
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Physicians and Surgeons
Women median weekly earnings: $ 1246
Men median weekly earnings: $ 2002
Difference: $ 756
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“The fact that men and women in academic medicine who perform similar work are paid different amounts not only has implications for equity but for efficiency; i.e. how can we expect to continue to attract the most talented women into the field if we don’t fix this issue?” says Anupam B. Jena, first author of the research from Harvard Medical School.
The study of medical pay postulated that female doctors in the US are paid considerably less than male doctors irrespective of same age, position, years of experience, and qualification.
Read: Highest Paid Jobs In India
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Chefs
Women median weekly earnings: $ 492
Men median weekly earnings: $ 656
Difference: $ 164
Women have been cooking for centuries. While in the restaurant world, there lies a clear difference between the number of male and female chefs. This profession has mainly been male dominating. This is the reason that there lies a difference in pay cheques as well. It has been found that female chefs earn 28.1 percent less than male chefs. While another survey reported that women earn $ 20,000 less than men every year.
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Pharmacists
Women median weekly earnings: $ 1811
Men median weekly earnings: $ 2117
Difference: $ 306
Pharmacists are the professionals who practice in pharmacy and deal in a proper and effective use of medications. They are also known as chemists or druggists. Like in all other professions, a female pharmacist is not aloof of gender wage gap either. “As an occupation the pharmacy profession has a modestly higher gender wage gap than most other jobs,” says Ben Phillips, a principal research fellow at the Australian National University’s Centre for Social Research and Methods. In Australia, male pharmacists on average earn $ 85, 362 annually while females earn only $ 65, 503.
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Accountants and Auditors
Women median weekly earnings: $ 988
Men median weekly earnings: $ 1345
Difference: $ 357
Similar to other professions, the gender gap persists in this area as well. In fact, the gap widens for the women aged above 40. It has been observed that in Canada, United States, and Europe about 50 to 60% (approx.) of these professionals are women. In spite of such large share, women are considerably paid little when compared with men.
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Architects and Engineers
Women median weekly earnings: $ 1257
Men median weekly earnings: $ 1452
Difference: $ 195
According to U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey-2013, female architects earned 80% (approx.) of male architects. Another reason for this lag is that lesser number of women applies in these professions in comparison to men. However, the gap seems to diminish; it is still present. A new study from recruitment website, Ree.co.uk, 97,681 women apply for engineering posts compared to 7, 53,263 men (in the UK).
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Administrative Service Managers
Women median weekly earnings: $ 981
Men median weekly earnings: $ 1451
Difference: $ 470
A report by Workplace Gender Equity Agency, Australia, claims that women working at key management personnel levels such as finance or operations earn 28.9 percent less than men. While it’s another release asserted that females in managerial positions earn considerably less than males. This states that pay gap is greater in managerial ranks.
Note: Salary figures has been taken from 24/7 wallst.com, marketwatch.com, and The United States Department of Labour
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