Pay differences between men and women

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Why has the gap between male and female wages narrowed significantly?

In the past, there has always been a large wage gap between males and females. One reason for wage differentials across the labour market is because labour is not homogeneous and gender is one such differential factor between employees.

The upward trend of female employment can be explained by a number of factors and it is possible to link it to the falling unemployment during the Lawson boom in 1987 which led to labour shortages. Employers thus had to use female labour to fill the vacancies and due to demand and supply forces, wages were pushed up for this group of workers.

There are a growing proportion of well qualified women in the workforce which may have exerted upward pressure on their wages. In the past women were denied the same educational opportunities as men and were thus unable to acquire the same level of human capital. However women now outperform men at educational levels, for example 27% of women receive an A*-C grade at GCSE whereas only 18% of men achieve this.

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The 1970’s onwards saw a growth in relative pay between men and women because of legal reasons such as the equal pay act 1970 and social trends making it less acceptable in society to discriminate against women in terms of wages and occupation. The percentages of women in traditionally “male” jobs which tend to have higher wages are growing.  For example 47% of all lawyers and solicitors are now women. Furthermore, our economy is becoming far more service based which many employers believe is a more suitable sort of job for a woman than heavy manual work, for this reason ...

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