This paper examines the persistent wage gap between white males and female or minority workers in the United States, tracing progress from the 1963 Equal Pay Act through early twenty-first century data. Drawing on census statistics, legal analysis, and management theory — including Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Merton's self-fulfilling prophecy — the paper argues that legislation alone is insufficient to close the gap. Instead, it contends that Human Resource managers must lead cultural change through diversity training and attitudinal reform, fostering workplaces where equal pay for equal work becomes an organizational norm rather than a legal obligation.
Human Resource Management is a field that has been evolving gradually over time in terms of its responsibilities, structure, and functions within an organization. As time progresses, these factors will continue to evolve, making the HR departments of the future look considerably different from those of the past. As a result, progress toward compensation equity will rest largely in HR departments' ability to incorporate awareness of inequity through training programs specifically designed to change attitudes toward diversity and give women and minorities the respect — and the pay — they deserve. The laws enforcing equal and fair pay remain critically important; however, ultimately, we need to address the problem at its core in order for lasting change to occur.
For many years there has been a wage gap between what white males earn and what females and minorities earn. Some progress has been made in reducing this gap, but a substantial discrepancy remains nonetheless. According to Green and Ferber (2005), "Between 1975 and 2003, the gender earnings gap among whites decreased from 42.5 per cent to 21.0 per cent of men's earnings, among blacks from 24.9 per cent to 10.7 per cent and among Hispanics from 31.4 per cent to 11.5 per cent. But these differences remain substantial" (p. 55).
A more recent report by the U.S. Census Bureau shows that "in 2007 women earned only 78 cents for every dollar that men earned. This is approximately a 19-cent improvement from the 1963 wage gap figure of 59 cents on the dollar. Most women of color experience even more severe inequities: African-American women earned only 68.7 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2005, Hispanic women earned only 59 cents, and Asian-American women earned 89.5 cents" ("Questions," 2010).
Clearly, there is hope for compensation equity, given that some numbers have improved, but there is still much work to be done in this area. Despite the ongoing efforts by activist groups to enforce laws requiring equal pay for equal work, the obvious and unfortunate truth is that people in America are not being compensated equally and fairly. According to Abraham Maslow (1970), there is a common hierarchy of needs — physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization — that motivates people to succeed. This hierarchy is not reserved for white males; it is a common hierarchy of needs among people of all races and genders. Therefore, it is only logical that the motivators moving people toward the top of this hierarchy and toward self-actualization should be universally applicable. Unfortunately, many business managers do not see things this way.
The concept of equal pay and opportunities is increasingly being replaced with the notion of the management of diversity. However, this shift has only marginally lessened the wage gap between white males and their female and/or ethnic counterparts. Certainly many of the traditional approaches to compensation equity might be said to have "failed" in the sense that unfair discrimination has not been eliminated. Yet they might be judged successful if measured in terms of progress toward equality of opportunity. Much of the contemporary debate about the management of diversity implies that it is both a more appropriate and more adequate approach that will replace the old ideas of equal opportunities (Harvey & Allard, 2005).
This is not to say that equal opportunities and pay are not still front-burner issues. The trend now is to focus on healing the source of the problem rather than the outcome. In other words, a major part of the reason that women and minorities are not paid equally is the discriminatory and derogatory attitudes that many people hold toward them. Ultimately, it is these attitudes that need to be changed. If people viewed everyone's work as equally valuable, there would be no need to constantly develop new legislation to ensure that employers are adhering to the rules (Harvey & Allard, 2005).
"Legal and attitudinal explanations for persistent pay disparities"
"HR's responsibility to change attitudes through training"
In order to compete in the modern business environment, a company must critically examine its functions and practices, and subsequently develop more effective ways to not only obtain the best employees, but to maintain their loyalty and commitment to the success of the organization. Human Resource Managers need to facilitate the development of a positive work environment in which teamwork and success can flourish in an era of diversity (Lengnick-Hall et al., 2009). However, in order for this to happen, people need to be treated fairly; and that means — among other things — receiving the same pay for the same work, regardless of race or gender.
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