Equal Employment Opportunities in the Human Resource

In Chapter 3, the book explains how to provide equal employment opportunities in the human resource environment. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was one equal employment act that stood out to me. Under this act, if men and women in an organization are doing equal work, the employer must pay them equally. In the case where the pay differs, it has to be from difference in seniority, merit, or any factors other than sex, otherwise it is illegal. There were not really any contradictions between the article and the book. But the article did point out that in most cases men are generally harder working than women. When it comes to jobs, men usually take on jobs with more risk that involve physical labor, out door work and/or dangerous working conditions. They put up with these high-risk jobs so that they can earn more. While women generally more inclined to jobs with fewer risk, more comfortable conditions, regular hours, and more flexibility. Not all women are the same but it is enough women to have a big impact on the statistics that the world monitors. The article was sort of contradicting because it started by explaining how men generally earn more than most women because of the different career choices they make but it ended by saying that from the study they realized that women who are single, childless urban workers generally earn more than men.

The article tells how the Department of Labor's Time Use did a survey that shows that full-time working women spend an average of 8.01 hours per day on the job, compared to 8.75 hours a full-time male works per day. So someone who works 9% more would expect to earn more. This issue may or may not affect managers or HR professionals but it can cause conflict in the workplace. Wages aren't typically a workplace topic but they may come up. Even if two individuals, male and female, work the same job and make the same pay there still is a chance that the male will make more than the female employee. This can also affect HR professionals because they're the ones who create an environment people want to work in, which is critical to getting business results. If you have conflict in the workplace it may alter the environment and if people believe that within your company men earn more than women, more women may not want to work for your company. But given statistics and facts, it is shown that in some cases men earn more and in some women earn more. Even with the wage gap shrinking, there are many factors that contribute to higher wages such as educations, working conditions, and location.

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