Search Results: independent women

I have no strong feelings about the size of the role of sex discrimination and/or sexism plays.

According to the Fair Work Commission "it is rare, but not unheard of, for women to be paid a lower base wage than men doing the same jobs"
https://www.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/pdf/sex_discrim/equal_pay.pdf This document contains cases, for example, the Danfoss case, where a court determined the pay gap between male and female workers to be in violation of the Workplace Relations Act 1996, which requires employers to accord male and female employees equal remuneration for work of equal value.

Policies that aren't inherently sexist but are unjust and mostly impact women contribute to the pay gap. Workers are paid unjustly in areas where there are a higher number of women, contributing to the gap, but is not due to sex discrimination.

For example, in Australia, the penalty rates were cut in positions where mostly women are employed.
https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/theausinstitute/pages/1437/attachments/original/1488949016/Womens_Wages_and_the_Penalty_Rate_Cut.pdf?1488949016. The solution here is not to tell women to "choose a better paying job". Men and women will argue that it is fair to be paid a higher rate when they work on a weekend. This penalty cut is unjust and is an issue independent from sex discrimination or sexism. Although the penalty cut in itself is not sex discrimination, it is unjust and does disproportionately affect women, contributing a widening to the gender pay gap.

In America, there is currently a push for the minimum wage to increase to $15 per hour. Supporters, like me, of this increase see being paid the current $7.25 per hour as unjust and it is estimated 58% of the nearly 40 million U. S. workers who would benefit from this wage hike are women.

Out of space but here' s a potential contributor linked to sexism https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/upshot/as-women-take-over-a-male-dominated-field-the-pay-drops.html