Literature Review
Discuss about the Business Research on Gender Wage Gap.
The gender gap at the place of work is “the disproportionate difference or disparity between the two genders.” It is actually stated that conventionally the disparities between boys and girls are observable in specific spheres of study. There is the need for encouragement of children in all the spheres. In the places of work, the gender gaps refer to the opportunities for the job as well as the differences in salary. According to statistics it is seen that men earn more for the same work in comparison to women. It is also seen that the men have been on the top of their professions much longer than women maybe because of the fact that men have been provided with opportunities to excel much more in comparison to women (Blau and Kahn 2017).
The objective of the project is to study the existent literature which is related to the gender gap and the wage gap in the workplace with special reference to the Finance service industry of Australia. The impact of gender gap in the in the overall Australian society is also discussed.
The scope of the project is huge. This is because gender wage gap is a severe issue which is also very much prevalent in Australia. This needs to be reduced and therefore the situations also need to be justified. There is a special focus which is to be given to the financial service industry. This is because of the fact that the effect of the wage gap in most significant in this sector. It is expected that the gender gap can be identified after a study of the relevant literature and recommendations can also be provided in order to improve the condition of the Australian financial industry management.
Majorly the connotation of gender gap is used to refer to the difference in pay as well as the opportunities for the men and women. There have been noticed differences in the wages of the men and women at their places of work. This is as a result of the pre-conceived notions of gender disparity in the society. This is an issue which has been experienced even by the Australian society which is most in case of the workplace as well as in educational backdrops. It has also been noticed that men have less access to family-friendly policies such as parental leave or flexible working arrangements than women. It is also important to understand the financial aspects that are caused due to high level of gender pay gap in the Australian financial service sector.” It has been seen that very slow progress is being made with respect to the gender parity in the incomes all across of the globe. Failure to pay women equally for an equal amount of hard work puts a limit on their ability to attain financial balance and stability. The affects of payment at the time of work, impacts the gender wage gaps as well.
Gaps in Literature
There are the earnings of both male and female full time earnings which tend to increase with age, though earning increase more slowly after the specific middle age groups. There are certain aspects of payment which are to be considered for both men and women. It is seen that education can improve the earnings of women of all races and ethnicities and also as well as gender. There are women who are much more than men. The gender pay gap persists across all the levels of education which is worse in case of people of certain ethnicities. There have gains which have been made by women in the workforce but the gap of pay also exists which is due to the ability to chip away the actual gap of pay.
The gender wage gap has also been seen to vary depending upon the nature of a job which a woman holds. The sector also continues to be dominated by the men and there is also the reason that they have been in a particular job for a longer frame of time. It has been seen that around 63% of the time men are offered larger salaries than those of women due to the higher amount of trust on the men. There is also a certain level of fairness and trust which is associated with the payment of the men more in comparison to the women along with being linked to the effects on the economy (Blau 2016).
This particular research is concerned with understanding the level of gap in the wages of both the genders in the Australian financial sector. It is understood that there are different gaps in the literature because companies are likely to hide the details of the wages which they pay to their employees as they would want to retain a positive brand image and picture of themselves.
“What is the extent of gender wage gap in the Australian financial industry?” This is the primary research question to be identified.
The research question is adopted on the basis of the fact that there has been the prevalence of the differences in the wages of both the males and females in different aspects of work for ages. Women despite working equally or in certain cases even more than the men, it becomes necessary for the organisations to ensure that they are being paid for the efforts which they put for their organisation. In is because of which the research question is chosen.
Research Methodology
The secondary questions in relation to the primary questions are:
What is the thought process governing the less amount of pay for the women?
How long is the gender wage gap likely to prevail in the given scenario?
A research design is a proper and systematic approach which is utilized by a researcher in order to conduct a particular type of survey. It is basically concerned with the overall synchronization of the components selected and the data which results in suitable and noteworthy outcomes. It is desirable that the research design follows a strategic pattern or method based on the type of research which has been chosen. Exploratory research aims at finding out the problem or aim by a manner of questioning situations. Descriptive helps in the in-depth research. Explanatory research helps in the explanation of the specific subject manner. Evaluation research helps in the measurement of effectiveness of a program. The descriptive method of research is basically concerned with the in depth research for perfect answering of the research questions management.
Descriptive research is aimed at considering the current issues or problems by certain methods including data collection which enables them to explain the situation in a much more complete manner than what is possible without employing such a method. Descriptive studies help in the explanation of different types of phenomenon. This method helps in handling non-quantified topics issues and observes incidents in a natural way. This method has been employed in this research.
A deductive approach has been utilized in this particular study. There are three main types of research approaches which are abductive, inductive and deductive.
In this specific research on the gender wage gap in the Australian context the main method which is to be employed is that of quota sampling. The companies in the financial sector of Australia are chosen as the target population for the given survey. “Types of sampling comprise of non-probability sampling, simple random sampling, systematic sampling, stratified sampling, cluster sampling, quota sampling and mini-max sampling among other types.”
The sample size is based on the organisations, specifically in the financial sector in Australia where there is a major wage gap among the men and the women. This is expected to help in the research which helps in the overall development of the research understanding and bring pointers towards the improvement of payment and closing of the age gap.
The sample population in the survey is basically the part or a specific proportion which is selected to be studied. This is basically a proportion of about 10% of the total study population. It needs to be ensured however that the sample population is a proper representative of the total population. The main population in this case is the financial sector in the country of Australia. A 10%
Sample Techniques
It is possible to collect primary data from the respondents by means of a questionnaire. Interviews can also be conducted by means of arranging for the managers to be interviewed. In this research the managers of the companies which engage in business outsourcing are to be selected. The company managers and people in authoritative positions are to be interviewed in order to receive necessary information for the research. The men and women who work in the financial sectors of Australia are also interviewed in this particular study (Whitehead and Whitehead 2016).
An important criteria of a research study is in the maintenance of the overall authenticity of the data which are being collected and also to ensure that the data which are being collected is genuine. Tests for validity can be conducted in order to ensure that the authenticity of the data has been ensured and the results which are being produced related to the research can be relied on. The data which are to be collected from the financial organisations in Australia need to be proper and genuine. These data help in drawing conclusions on the disparity of the gap of wages for the men and women and therefore it is necessary to ensure that the company maangers as well as different stakeholders of the organisation provide valid and reliable data with suitable facts and figures showing the percentage gap the amount of increase or decrease and also the accurate salary figures for the past two to three decades.
In order to understand the issues and instances of gender wage gap in the companies in the backdrop of the financial sector of Australia the qualitative method of collection of data can be employed for the same. This helps in the overall analysis of the different types of reactions and also the responses that have been obtained in connection to the survey. The answers or responses of the mangers of organisations and other stakeholders are analysed in this specific scenario (Lewis 2015).
There are certain limitations of both quantitative and qualitative research. There can be ambiguity in the nature of the responses as well as the problems which are highlighted by the managers. In order to maintain a certain amount of privacy of the company, it is possible for the managers of the chosen organisations to give false and invalid information or reasons which is unacceptable. The mindsets of the respondents also cannot be judged. There also is the chance of managers not disclosing the actual reason for gender wage gap in order to ensure the branding of the company. This is also a proper of the company.
Conclusion:
Gender wage gap is one of most significant issues in the country of Australia. The report helps in getting the confirmation that there is a significant difference in the minimum wages which are paid to both the men and women in the same job profile. The aim of gender equality in the workplace is to achieve broadly equal outcomes for both men and women. It is desirable that the workplaces provide equal pay for work which is either of equal or comparable value. There also needs to be the removal of barriers to the complete participation of women in the workforce. There needs to be a proper access to all the occupations and industries including roles of leadership irrespective of the gender and elimination of discrimination on the basis of gender and this is specifically in connection to the family and responsibilities regarding that of care.
The achievement of gender equality is important for the places of work because of the reason that it is fair and the correct thing to do and it also connected to the overall economic performance of a country as a whole.
References and Bibliography:
Blau, F.D. and Kahn, L.M., 2017. The gender wage gap: Extent, trends, and explanations. Journal of Economic Literature, 55(3), pp.789-865.
Blau, F.D., 2016. Gender, inequality, and wages. OUP Catalogue.
Card, D., Cardoso, A.R. and Kline, P., 2015. Bargaining, sorting, and the gender wage gap: Quantifying the impact of firms on the relative pay of women. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 131(2), pp.633-686.
Cech, E.A., 2013. Ideological wage inequalities? The technical/social dualism and the gender wage gap in engineering. Social Forces, 91(4), pp.1147-1182.
Cleary, M., Horsfall, J. and Hayter, M., 2014. Data collection and sampling in qualitative research: does size matter?. Journal of advanced nursing, 70(3), pp.473-475.
Danaj, E., 2016. Gender Wage Gap. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Family Studies.
Englander, M., 2012. The interview: Data collection in descriptive phenomenological human scientific research. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 43(1), pp.13-35.
Hegewisch, A. and Hartmann, H., 2014. Occupational segregation and the gender wage gap: A job half done.
Hegewisch, A., Williams, C. and Zhang, A., 2013. The gender wage gap: 2013. Washington: Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
Lewis, S., 2015. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), pp.473-475.
Whitehead, D. and Whitehead, L., 2016. Sampling data and data collection in qualitative research.