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Introduction介绍
性别工资差距是劳动力市场中普遍存在的现象。然而，这个问题被低估了。2009年性别工资差距报告调查显示，尽管政府平等办公室于2009年4月公布了《平等法案》，而且《平等法案》的原则之一是透明度，但只有29%的雇主在衡量组织内部的性别工资差距时，认为这是一个非常重要的因素。有3.7%的组织选择报告结果。（Adams、Gore和Shury，2009:56）此外，绝大多数没有参与测量性别工资差距的雇主都存在广泛的问题。他们认为他们已经提供了平等的工资，因此没有必要进行调查。（亚当斯、戈尔和舒里，2009:57）这清楚地表明，男女之间的性别薪酬差距问题一直没有得到足够的重视。然而，这一问题的存在产生了巨大的负面影响，如降低女性员工的满意度、产生冲突、降低员工生产力、导致资源分配不合理等（Saner和Sadikoglu，2016:363；Branisa、Klasen和Zi埃格勒，2013:258；比约克，2008:970）。应引起有关各方的注意，并采取行动。本文旨在从性别工资差距的角度探讨劳动力市场不平等的原因，为解决这一问题提出初步建议。
Gender pay gap is an omnipresent phenomenon within the labour market. However, this problem is being downplayed. The Gender pay gap reporting survey 2009 shows that although the Equality Bill has been published in April 2009 by the Government Equalities Office, and one of the principles of the Equality Bill is transparency, only 29% of the employers were measuring the gender pay gap within the organizations and 3.7% of those organizations were choosing to report the results. (Adams, Gore and Shury, 2009: 56) Moreover, there exists a widespread problem among the vast majority of the employers who have not engaged in measuring the gender wage gap. They think that they have already provided equal pay thus there is no need for them to do the investigation. (Adams, Gore and Shury, 2009: 57) This clearly shows that the issue of gender pay gap between male and female has not been paid enough attention. However, the existence of this issue has a great negative effect, such as reducing the satisfactions of female employees, producing conflicts, decreasing employee productivity, also leading to the irrational distribution of resources and so on (Saner and Sadikoglu, 2016: 363; Branisa, Klasen and Ziegler, 2013: 258; Bjerk, 2008: 970). It should draw the attention of relevant parties and action should be taken. The purpose of this essay is to discuss factors accounting for inequalities within the labour market from the perspective of gender pay gap, so as to make tentative suggestions for solving the problem.
由于透明度是缩小性别工资差距的前提，这种情况反映了性别工资不平等。性别工资差距是一个复杂的问题。不同的研究者从不同的角度解释了这一问题的原因，并提出了不同的理论，如歧视偏好理论、统计歧视理论、比较优势理论等（Campos Soria、Marchante Mera、Ropero Garc_a，2011:99）。根据Hassink和Russo（2010:12）、Sturges和Guest（2004:8）、Triventi（2013:564）所倡导的标准和依据：企业管理层是否做出合理决策，导致男女性别工资差距的因素分为三类：职业SE种族隔离、工作——家庭冲突和纯粹的歧视。本文首先介绍了三类因素的相关文献。然后，描述了各因素的特点。最后，对如何解决这一问题提出了建议。
Since transparency is a premise for reducing gender wage gap, this situation is a reflection of the gender pay inequalities. And gender wage gap is a complicated problem. Different researchers explain the causes of this problem from different angles and different theories have been put forward, such as discriminatory preference theory, statistical discrimination theory, comparative advantage theory and so on (Campos-Soria, Marchante-Mera, Ropero-García, 2011:99). According to what Hassink and Russo (2010:12), Sturges and Guest (2004:8), Triventi (2013:564) have advocated and based on the criterion: whether corporate management makes rational decisions, factors leading to gender pay gap between men and women are divided into three categories: occupational segregation, work–family conflict matter and pure discrimination. In this study, first, related literatures on the three categories of factors are introduced. Then, characteristics of the factors were described. Finally, suggestions on how to solve the problem were put forward. 2. Occupational segregation
Occupational gender segregation refers to the fact that different sexes are concentrated in different industries and occupations due to social systemic factors. Gender segregation at work can be divided into two types: horizontal and vertical segregation (Campos-Soria, Marchante-Mera and Ropero-García, 2011: 101).
2.1 Horizontal segregation
Horizontal segregation means that certain jobs are considered to be "male jobs," such as jobs with a high reputation and social status, for example, doctors, lawyers, university professors, business executives and other professional work. Glass door effect is a manifestation of horizontal segregation, that is, it is very difficult for women to apply for high-level positions in an enterprise (Hassink and Russo, 2010:13).
There are mainly two reasons for this phenomenon, first, women are disadvantaged in terms of employment information, work experience and technical skills because of their primary responsibility of raising children and caring for their families. Therefore employers are more inclined to choose men for occupations which require highly skilled, experienced and responsible employees (Valcour and Tolbert, 2003:781). Second, the pursuit of efficiency is enterprises’ ultimate goal, and the recruitment of female employees will increase the cost of production, as relevant laws and regulations provide that employers should pay for female employees’ reproductive expenses, salaries during maternity leave. Due to economic rationality, employers are more likely to hire and promote men in view of the cost of employment (Dieckhoff, Gash and Steiber, 2015: 73).
2.2 Vertical segregation
Vertical segregation means that when men and women are in the same industry, men generally take higher positions and get higher salaries, while women take lower, less skilled positions, get lower salaries and less opportunity to be promoted. The ceiling effect and the sticky floor effect are common phenomena in vertical segregation (Hejase and Dah, 2014: 960).
Women face a variety of visible and invisible barriers in promotion within their companies, that is the glass ceiling effect. Albrecht, Bjorklund and Vroman (2003:167) found that Swiss women were harder to get higher salaries and were harder to be promoted than men, which confirmed the existence of the glass ceiling effect. Renner, Rives and Bowlin (2002:14) found that female executives got lower salaries than their male counterparts. Gibelman (2000:10) concluded that there was indeed a glass ceiling effect in non-profit HR service institutions, men took more senior management positions and received higher pay.
Reasons for the existence of the ceiling effect lie in the following aspects. Lazear and Rosen (1990:106-123) pointed out that dedicated human capital investment was needed. As women have a relatively high probability of withdrawing or interrupting, it is an employer's rational choice to reduce women's promotion opportunities or increase their promotion thresholds, as it can reduce the risk of women’s launching in a labor market. Bjerk (2008:981) showed that the underrepresentation of women in senior positions is due to the statistical discrimination in the promotion mechanism. Because individual ability can not be accurately observed, employers must rely on the statistical characteristics of the group to estimate the individual's ability. As long as women's average ability is low, even there is no gender bias, women need more time or more effort to be promoted.
Women start their career more often with lower levels of positions and fewer opportunities for promotion, that is the sticky floor effect (Hejase and Dah, 2014:958). A study carried out by Albrecht et al. (2003:167) pointed out that the percentage of Swiss women working at low-paid jobs was much higher than the proportion of those who were engaged in high-paying jobs, confirming the existence of a sticky floor effect. Winter et al.'s (1997:58) study indicated women's overcrowding at the bottom positions, pointing out that the reason for this phenomenon was not the result of female labor productivity or the reason for taking on family responsibilities, but rather a kind of discrimination towards women.
There are many explanations for the reasons leading to the sticky floor effect. The two most convincing ones are: first, compared with men, women have natural attachment costs such as birth and being engaged in housework because of their special physiology. The heavy housework makes it hard for women to have more time to enrich themselves and their relative lack of investment in careers also makes them have less expectation than men for their career (Hejase and Dah, 2014:957). Second, in many labor-intensive enterprises with low technical content, there are long working hours and low wages, they often recruit many women, but it is not because the management has more gender equality awareness and more caring for women, but the result of the managers’ choice of maximizing market profits. The real reason is that women are more likely than men to accept lower payment and they are easier in management. Capital markets make use of this to maximize profits (Dieckhoff, Gash and Steiber, 2015:73).
3. Work–family conflict |
