The Gender Pay Gap

Today's reading, The Gender Pay Gap, by Blau and Kahn talks about gender differences in wages and factors contributing to those differences. In the article, they discuss two main factors aside from the possible gender discrimination that have contributed to the wage differences between male and female workers 1979 to 2004.
First factor is human capitals, such as level of education one attains and work experiences one has. They report that while male and female workers have relatively same level of education, "male workers tended to have slightly more potential experiences" compared to female workers (p. 2). Another factor is industry and occupation one is involved in; the authors argue that women tend to have low-paying occuations or work in such industries, rather than high paying managerial jobs. Through their article, Blau and Kahn show that even when these two factors are controlled, gender wage gaps still exist, suggeting the possibility of gender discriminstion in the job market.
However, despite this finding, they are very careful about pointing to gender discrimination as the cause of the still existing wage differences between male and female workers. They claim that other social facotrs, such as working conditions or motivation, may explain the remaining gender differences in wages. Furthermore, they also talk about how gender gap in wages are starting to evolve over time. As quality of women's human capital improves and technological chanegs put high demands for white-collar jobs, women are gaining more equality with men in terms of wages in the job market. And yet, as they mention, total wage equality is yet to be accomplished and may not be easy to accomplish in the near future.