The Wage Gap essays

The Wage Gap essays Wage inequality has been extensively studied both by Schiller and Becker. These two theorists provide different theoretical explanations as to why there is a prevalent wage gap in society. Becker refers to rational choice as a cause of wage inequality, while Schiller believes the wage gap results from different societal discrimination's. Schiller suggests that wage inequality is rooted in discrimination in the labor market. The three types of discrimination that affect the wage gap are racial, class, and sex discrimination. Discrimination may lead to reduced opportunity and subsequent depressed incomes for certain Racial discrimination is prevalent at the lower ends of the labor market, which results in a concentrated representation of racial minorities in poverty. There are substantial gaps in rates of poverty across race, which could be attributed to discrimination. The gap in average incomes between whites and non-whites is $24,000, and unemployment rates for Whites, Hispanics and Blacks are approximately 4%, 6% and 8% respectively, Racial discrimination manifests itself in a few different ways. In non-market discrimination, differences in incomes are a result of differences in schooling. In past labor discrimination, previous discrimination results in minorities being less experienced, less skilled, and with lower seniority. Finally, there is also current discrimination in Schiller suggests that controlling for years of schooling reduces the gap in earnings, but there are fundamental differences in the quality of schooling received. The wage gap would diminish more if differences in the quality of schooling could be controlled for. Schiller claims that much of the evident disparity in earnings between races can be attributed to prior, non-market discrimination, and that most of the problems of inequality ...