The decreasing gap in men’s and women’s pay may be a result of falling wages.

A recent study (discussed in this article) revealed that women make 82.6% of what men make, which has increased over the past decade. A smaller gap between wages of different genders could be caused by women moving into higher paying jobs or men’s wages falling.  Unfortunately, over the past ten years, men’s wages have decreased while women’s have remained around the same.

Ten years ago, the average weekly pay of women was $703 and the average weekly pay of men was $882.  This year, the average for women is $710 and the average for men is $859.

Research also shows that the weekly pay averages for the beginning of this year are lower than those of the end of last year.  There has recently been more job growth in lower paying jobs than in higher paying jobs, which is resulting in the decrease in average wages.

Although it certainly isn’t a good sign that this year’s wages are lower than last year’s, it’s still good to see that the gap between men’s and women’s wages is narrowing.  The gender pay gap and the decrease in average wages are two separate problems all together.  Women work just as hard as men do and deserve to be paid the same as them.  Since their wages are not decreasing as men’s are, it shows that women are working jobs that pay the same or higher rather than jobs that pay less, which is a good sign.   

If dogs ran the government, men and women would both be paid equal amounts for doing the same jobs and the gender pay gap would not exist.