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Gender Pay Gap

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Gender Pay Gap
The gender pay gap is a measure of the difference between the earnings of men and women. Equal pay is the issue that women have been facing for long time in the history. Despite of many policies introduced starting in 1970 the Equal Pay Act. This has lead to many law changes until introduction of Equality Act 2010 which according to the Government Equalities Office (2010) it simplifies the removing inconsistence and making it easier for people to understand and comply with it. The office states that Britain has made a progress however the discrimination still exists.

Moreover, it is well known that women are under-represented in high paying jobs and high level of occupations Gneezy, Leonard and List (2008). This paper is going to attempt to answer questions such as why women are still paid less and reasons behind it. Secondly, how the female and male equality is measured. And last question will attempt to establish how close to seal the gender pay gap is Britain. The paper will look at policies, social and cultural issues that encourage gender pay gap as well as evaluate impact of historical factors related to this problem.

1. Why women are still paid less.
Equality and Human Right Commission (2010) research show the causes for persistence gap remain stereotyping women’s capabilities and skills. Trade’s union research indicated that main reason explaining the gap is under-valuing women’s work. This was explained by Grimshaw and Rubery (2004) in Modeling Gender Pay Gaps. Another reason for the pay gap to persist could be the employment penalty for mothers. Research has shown that there are three groups of people affected by disadvantages. Mothers are of them. Gender segregation where some occupations are dominated by women and these jobs are usually lower paid which is one the foundations of gender pay gap (TUC, 2008).

2. Are female and male equal and how do you measure equality in terms of pay.
From gender definition: Gender refers to

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