Identify & Analyse Causes Of The Gender Pay Gap Assignment Sample

Introduction Of The Identify And Analyse Causes Of The Gender Pay Gap Assignment

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The conversion of a matrilineal society into a patriarchal society and the vague notion of division of labour subdued the position of females in the social sphere as well as in the workplace. According to Morchio and Moser (2021), in the modern 21st century, the gender pay gap has appeared to be one of the major causes that inhibited the seamless inflow of productivity in the industrial arena. In most cases, the prevalent gap between men and women from the perspective of wage and recognition is culminating directly in economic inequality and overall imbalance in the economic equilibrium. Segovia-Pérez et al. (2019) added that the gender pay gap in hospitality is tarnishing the reputation of the industry as a whole and further thwarting the path of seamless ESG practices. The gender pay gap can be defined as a discriminatory pay scale between men and women based on their gender orientation and stereotypical notions.

In essence, the prevalence of the gender pay gap seems to be a complete foil to the principle of equal pay for equal work that is espoused in organisations to streamline an inflow of equality. As per data, in developed nations like the UK, 2.8% of the wage gap is traced among men and women in 2020 (ONS.GOV, 2020). Although the gap in remuneration is considered a major stumbling block, the existence of women has come under acute stakes. Dating back to history, there is evidence of women taking control of the jobs usually termed as masculine, and they not only managed to accomplish the tasks but proved their superiority. In the hospitality sector, the soaring rate pay gap is detrimental to employee retention and endangers the quality of service delivered to the upscale clientele and loyal consumer base. Encompassing the persistent pay gap in the remuneration scale, a concerning study has its thrust on identifying particular pain points of the pay gap in the hospitality sector.

Findings

The Gender Pay Gap in Hospitality Industry

Over the decades' relentless research works and experiments are going on to analyse and specify the areas of vulnerability in hospitality that are fuelling discrimination among employees based on gender. Arbelo et al. (2021) mentioned that the inequitable distribution of wealth among the existing heterogeneity in the hospitality sector persists in varied forms. Recently in the UK media, unequal distribution of remuneration and career opportunities among men and women are becoming a highly debated topic. Calinaud et al. (2021) claimed that despite the trend of reshuffling the workforce to create a diverse one, women in hospitality and other sectors often remain far away from achieving executive positions. This author critically developed the counter-argument that the hospitality sector on the globe displays a skyrocketing rate of gender inequality owing to its seasonal nature that fails to offer women necessities like maternal or matrimonial leave. Besides that, a more valid point of argument can be raised as many of the segments of hospitality are completely dominated by male counterparts like chefs, cooks and so on and it might dissuade the women to pursue a senior position as they might have to face unwanted resistance or contingencies from the male colleagues.

Most of the scholars and researchers in their research pieces have articulated three major reasons to be accountable for pushing women away from the hospitality industry. The three major reasons are low pay, unsocial hours and lack of progression in career. A most recent survey has deliberately disclosed the sham pervasive in the hospitality sector that is antagonising the equal participation of individuals in the workplace regardless of their gender, race, creed and others (Dobbin and Kalev, 2022). Even 71% of women are found to be quitting their jobs in the hospitality sector as they are not quite satisfied with their uncertain careers. Moreover, gender-related discrimination in the hospitality industry is speculated to provide impetus to the scarcity of job opportunities congruent with their skills.

Gaps in Employment

Hospitality even during the post-pandemic is regarded as one of the forerunners in driving growth and creating outlets for potential job creation. Mooney and Baum (2019) held the view that despite the massive transition in the arena of hospitality, the future of women in this field appears to be bleak. To expound on the reasons behind the ingrained uncertainties in the sphere of hospitality, the author has further pointed out that unusual working hours and poor work-life balance in some cases are implemented in such a way that they coerce the women to leave their job. MacLeavy (2021) contended that due to common biological factors like childbirth and caregiving responsibilities, the role of women in professional premises is often toned down. With a holistic development of workers regardless of any bias or stereotypes, the organisational authority should be more empathetic, while it is entirely the duty of the employer to offer a secure and flexible work environment to the employees to spur growth and innovation simultaneously. MacLeavy (2021) depicted that common phases of life like marriage and giving birth to a child are viewed as fatalistic for the career development of women in comparison to men as the division of labour is unequal in domestic spaces as well. In terms of delineating in a detailed manner, it is worth mentioning that often couples logically decide that the lowest earner would bear the familial duties more than the high-earned ones. From this perspective, such unconscious mistakes in the domestic sphere reinforce the pay gap in the labour market and consciously or unconsciously women fall prey to it.

Del Boca et al. (2020) came up with the notion that due to childbearing, women are bound to take care of children more than their male partners. In workplaces, it is to be speculated that after having children, women would not be able to invest most of their efforts and time in their employers. Litman et al. (2020) suggested that to reduce the latent pay gap in the labour market considering the biological conditions of the women and their familial duties, for both men and women, the provisions of subsidised child care and sufficient time of parental leave are to be granted.

Expectations in highly paid roles

Tama et al. (2019) found that a high-paid job opportunity is concomitant to extremely high work pressure, as when an employer pays well; the employees remain bound to abide by the rules and job duties. In other words, high-paying jobs do not always guarantee the happiness of individuals on a long-term basis. In the case of women, despite the expectations of employers, they are compelled to fulfil the expectations of society. Webster et al. (2022) identified that adjusted statistics of the workplace often understate the potential for gender discrimination to suppress the earnings of women as a whole. In addition to that, in the hospitality sector, women who are promoted to leading positions are overburdened with work stress that might weigh heavily on the mental health of the women and endanger their security to a large extent. Even it is to be delineated that in the tech sector and other skill-based sectors, women are suppressed or not given equal opportunity and wages like that of their male co-workers by negating their intellect to be inferior. Costa Dias et al. (2020) discovered that the gender pay gap is driven by the cumulative impact of the course of women's whole lives. Ranging from the different treatment than male peers to imposing forcefully the expectations of society on women formulates the solid seedbed for the gender pay gap. Even expectations are considered to be self-fulfilling prophecies, and in a more rational sense, the women in urban setups to rural areas are prevented from pursuing STEM education that can upskill their skills and make them worthy enough to deal with contemporary expectations of the modern workplace.

In the hospitality sector, the gender pay gap can be due to the unwillingness of women to work night shifts or security concerns, which men usually do not encounter.

Unconscious Bias

Pay equity has become one of the major criteria of the modern workplace as far as employee well-being is concerned. O'Brien (2019) revealed that the simple truth behind the gender gap is that employers are still not aware of the equal positioning of women or else they are reluctant to acknowledge it. Such kind of biases indirectly creates a platform of wage discrimination based on gender and at the same time, employers often perceive that promoting a woman to a higher position or offering them equal pay like that of male colleagues might aggravate the majority of males and it might fuel the disruption within the workplace settings. Sokolova and Sorensen (2021) stressed the fact that employers in a competitive marketplace have a monopsonistic power of wage setting and in the case of women, the ingrained prejudices hinge on the exercise of power. Apart from the notion of profit-making, employers to avoid disruptions in work chose to limit the position of women employees to a certain extent driven by a vague view of wage elasticity. In the hospitality sector, the rising gender gap is a direct consequence of societal expectations and the flawed vision of the professionals that make this particular sphere precarious for the career growth of talented female professionals (Apergis and Lynch, 2022).

Recommendations

The hospitality industry may be able to contribute to the reduction of the wage gap between men and women by, among other things, conducting an analysis of the gender balance within teams, providing training on how to recognise and avoid unconscious bias, establishing gender pay forums, and instituting flexible working policies (Litman et al.,2020).

Because women and their families face the brunt of poverty caused by low tips, raising the tipped minimum wage might potentially have a substantial influence on closing the gender pay gap. Recent recommendations have advocated raising the tipped minimum pay to 70% of the minimum wage in order to ensure that the majority of a worker's income comes from their employer rather than from tips. This would ensure that the minimum wage is met (Morchio and Moser, 2021).

It is common practise in many workplaces to avoid discussing wages with co-workers, thus it is possible that many women are unaware that they are paid less than men for performing the same level of work. For example, ‘The Paycheck Fairness Act’ is an important piece of legislation in the effort to close the wage gap between men and women (MacLeavy, 2021). If passed, this act would make it more difficult for companies to pay male workers more than female workers by reducing pay secrecy and providing women with more powerful tools to combat pay discrimination.

Businesses in the hotel industry can increase their obligations with the assistance of labour unions to include required gender pay audits and the creation of action plans to address discriminatory pay practices. These new responsibilities will go into effect in 2020. Appointing diverse hiring teams in possession of inclusive mind-set can push the women workers to occupy the topmost designations only with the utilisation of talent and credentials. Promoting female leadership can also aid in eliminating the wage gaps and latent bias in the core of the organisational operation. Especially in hotels, female leadership would posit the image of women as capable enough to deal with hectic schedules and excessive work-pressure.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that the wage gap between men and women has been gradually narrowing, there is no guarantee that this trend will continue in the foreseeable future. As a consequence of this, it is essential to investigate potential solutions to the widening gender pay gap as well as alternative avenues via which women might make progress in their professional lives.

Inequality in pay between men and women has a tendency to be more pronounced in settings where overall disparity is greater, hence it is imperative that measures designed to reduce wage discrepancy in general be combined with policies designed to minimise gender pay inequality. Not only are efforts required to reduce the impacts of long-standing gender discrimination and inequality, but they are also required to prevent the formation of new kinds of discrimination in the workplace. To narrate the main issue in detail, it is to be outlined a huge difference lies between theory and practice and it is hindering the equality related legal frameworks to put into practice or to implement effectively. For instance, the prominent ‘The Pay check Fairness Act’ in reality is contrived with a purpose of offering same wage to workers based on their credentials and to exempt from indulging in the practices of discrimination based in gender. In such cases to put an end to these latent biases, the government or self-regulatory authority of hospitality industry would have to mandate submission of the monthly payslips to them in terms of monitoring and strict verification.

References

Apergis, N. and Lynch, N. (2022) 'The impact of economic freedom on the gender pay gap: evidence from a survey of UK households, Journal of Economic Studies (Bradford), 49(1), pp. 61–76.

Arbelo, A., Arbelo-Pérez, M. and Pérez-Gómez, P., (2021). Heterogeneity of resources and performance in the hotel industry. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 45(1), pp.68-89.

Calinaud, V., Kokkranikal, J. and Gebbels, M., (2021). Career advancement for women in the British hospitality industry: The enabling factors. Work, Employment and Society, 35(4), pp.677-695.

Costa Dias, M., Joyce, R. and Parodi, F., (2020). The gender pay gap in the UK: children and experience in work. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 36(4), pp.855-881.

Del Boca, D., Oggero, N., Profeta, P. and Rossi, M., (2020). Women’s and men’s work, housework and childcare, before and during COVID-19. Review of Economics of the Household, 18(4), pp.1001-1017.

Dobbin, F. and Kalev, A., (2022). Getting to diversity: What works and what doesn’t. Harvard University Press.

Litman, L., Robinson, J., Rosen, Z., Rosenzweig, C., Waxman, J. and Bates, L.M., (2020). The persistence of pay inequality: The gender pay gap in an anonymous online labour market. PloS one, 15(2), p.e0229383.

MacLeavy, J., (2021). Care work, gender inequality and technological advancement in the age of COVID?19. Gender, Work & Organisation, 28(1), pp.138-154.

Mooney, S. and Baum, T., (2019). A sustainable hospitality and tourism workforce research agenda: Exploring the past to create a vision for the future. In A research agenda for tourism and development. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Morchio, I. and Moser, C., (2021). The gender pay gap: Micro sources and macro consequences.

O'Brien, A., (2019). Women, inequality and media work. Routledge.

ONS.GOV (2020). Governmental Website. Available at:https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/genderpaygapintheuk/2020 [Accessed on 19 October 2022]

Segovia-Pérez, M., Figueroa-Domecq, C., Fuentes-Moraleda, L. and Muñoz-Mazón, A., (2019). Incorporating a gender approach in the hospitality industry: Female executives’ perceptions. International journal of hospitality management, 76, pp.184-193.

Sokolova, A. and Sorensen, T., (2021). Monopsony in labour markets: A meta-analysis. ILR Review, 74(1), pp.27-55.

Tentama, F., Rahmawati, P.A. and Muhopilah, P., (2019). The effect and implications of work stress and workload on job satisfaction. International Journal of Scientific and Technology Research, 8(11), pp.2498-2502.

Webster, A., Khorana, S. and Pastore, F., (2022). The effects of COVID-19 on employment, labour markets, and gender equality in Central America. IZA Journal of Development and Migration, 13(1), pp.1-43.