Women in the Workplace

Introduction

Gender bias in earnings is an ongoing issue. In 2014, women earned just 79 cents for every dollar made by men (Center for American Progress, 2016). In 2019, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) stated that women who work full-time earn about 80 percent of what their male counterparts make. Based on the articles by the Center for American Progress and the AAUW, we identify the following problems and attempt to investigate these statements in our study:

• The gender wage gap continues to grow over time.
• Women face wider pay gap as they get older.
• Women earn less than men in all but five occupations - wholesale and retail buyers except farm products; police and sheriff’s patrol officers; bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks; general office clerks; and data entry keepers.
• Women make less than men in pink-collar jobs such as maids and housekeeping cleaners, elementary and middle school teachers, and registered nurses.
• As women enter an occupation previously dominated by men, pay decreases in that occupation (Center for American Progress, 2016)

For this study, we would be using the Women in Workforce data which is a historical data about women’s earnings and employment status, specific occupation and earnings from 2013-2016, compiled from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau.

We intend to analyze the data using the following methodologies: Trend analysis, descriptive analysis, data visualization, and applicable statistical tests. We would investigate the gender pay gap over the years and the changes in the total female salary as a percentage of male salary by age group. We would conduct an exploratory analysis across the different fields/occupation groups to identify the male-dominated vs female-dominated occupation types. Some statistical tests would be employed to determine the differences in pay gap across fields and by age group. Finally, we hope to identify some factors contributing to the differences in wage gap using regression analysis.

Our results would provide more insight on the gender pay gap across fields, occupations, and age group. Our results would show the trend in gender pay gap from 2013 to 2016 and some of the factors contributing to gender pay gap. We hope that our study would contribute to the discussion on gender pay gap.