“The Other Gender Gap: Why Women Still Fail to Receive Comparable Wages for Comparable Work”, is a literary masterpiece by Naomi Barko, and describes the reasons why women still fail to receive comparable wages for comparable work despite possessing similar skills and experience as their male counterparts .The literary work also gives possible solution she recommends to deal with this issue of gender inequality in places of work (Lunsford and Ruszkiewicz 621).
In her literary work, Naomi Barko poses the question/problem that in the contemporary society, women and men are not similarly paid for equal work. The author emphasizes that in the modern society both men and women should be paid similar wages and offered similar benefits, if the society wants to rise above the poverty line. She argues that gender bias, oppression and dominion in places of work essentially occur when males tend to be represented and paid higher wages more than women in a number of activities and events, despite both having similar skills and experience. In her recommendations for possible solutions, she believes this gender occupation bias can only be solved when women wages is calculated based on their expertise and work experience. She attributes that this can be achieved by harmonizing wages in both sexes, and making sure that employees wage payment is based on possible skills and experience, and not on gender or sexual orientation, a concept she refers to as generating pay equity which requires individuals with similar skills, education, and experience to be paid comparable salaries and wages amounts, even if working in different sectors (Naomi 1). Therefore, in her essay we can say she categorically analyzes and argue for the predicament and possible resolution.
After thorough breakdown and analysis of the article, we can say without false modesty that the analysis of the problem or issue at hand is very convincing, for the reason that its a common fact and without a doubt that in today’s society women are over and over again paid less salaries and wages than men, despite possessing similar skills and experience. In respect to the recommended solution, the proposed solution does not seem feasible for the reason that it is too plain and undemanding to have all women being paid similar salaries and wages as their male counterparts (Lunsford and Ruszkiewicz 622) .Obviously it’s very complicated for women to get similar wages and benefits as men, and regardless of having legislative laws passed to handle the issue, women will still have the burden of proving that the work or positions they hold is equivalent to that of their male counterpart. She continues to argue that the pay gap between men and women cannot be categorized as discrimination per see against women, but to a certain extent prejudice in opposition to women's roles and occupations. Another problem is that women can never know what their male counterparts are being offered because it hard for them to check every employee paycheck to confirm what each of them is being paid (Naomi 1).
In this literary masterpiece, she supports her claims and arguments by adopting data and statistics from the National Committee on Pay Equity, which provides that there is slightly about 26% pay gap between salaries of males and women in the engineering sector, despite all of them having similar qualifications. The statistics tend to support and cement her claims, but as the society is, they are biased towards her agenda. She tries to incorporate noteworthy and appalling data all in aim of bringing and passing her point to the audience (Lunsford and Ruszkiewicz 621).
Work Cited
Naomi, Barko. "The Other Gender Gap: Why Women Still Fail to Receive Comparable
Wages
for Comparable Work”. November 30, 2000. Retrieved from
< http://prospect.org/article/other-gender-gap>
John, Ruszkiewicz & Andrea, Lunsford. Everything’s An Argument With Readings. New York:
Bedford/St Martins, 2006. 1115 pages.
