Equality isn’t a privilege – it’s a right. If two people work the same job for the same hours, they should receive the same amount of pay with the same rate of success. That’s simply common sense. In reality, though, we know that common sense doesn’t always apply to the workplace. The gender pay gap isn’t as big as it used to be in most jobs, but several occupations and industries lag behind the times. Unfortunately for female applicants, these include some of the most desirable and common positions on the market.
The news of these surprising (and, in some cases, growing) pay gaps comes when the gender barriers are falling at a faster rate than any other time in history. Roles that used to be typically male are now gender-neutral. Take gambling, for example. Once the preserve of older men in smoky backrooms, the online slots era has revolutionized the gambling industry. Taking gambling online has proven not only that women play online slots – a fact evidenced by the existence of the female-orientated online slots website Rose Slots CA – but they also know how to lead within the industry. Denise Coates runs one of the biggest gambling and online slots companies in the UK and is the highest-paid chief executive officer in the country. Regrettably, other industries and professions have failed to follow that trend. Here are five of the worst offenders.
Real Estate Brokers
The inclusion of this job probably comes as a surprise to most people. At least as many women work as real estate brokers as there are men, and the industry even prides itself on having female leaders. Despite all that, an unjust proportion of the money generated by profession is paid to the male minority. As of the end of 2018, women’s earnings were a disgraceful 70.6% of men’s earnings. Women made an average of $818 per week compared to $1159 for the average man. The gap may have closed a little since 2018, but it won’t have closed dramatically. The reason for the disparity is unknown. There have been numerous female whistleblowers within the industry citing discriminative practices regarding promotions, but the issue is yet to be tested in court. A thirty percent pay gap is utterly unacceptable in the 2020s, and it’s time something was done about it.
Teachers
Teachers are another shockingly bad profession for women, even though the overwhelming majority of teachers are women. There are six female teachers for every four teachers in the US education system, and that gap gets bigger every year. That should mean more women in senior positions by default and a gender pay gap that’s close to zero. If only that were the case. Women earn a mere 72% of what’s paid to their male counterparts, with a weekly salary of $820 compared to $1128. Again, this seems to be a case of higher-paid jobs and positions going to men even though men are a minority within the workforce, which shouldn’t be happening.
Sales Representatives
Sales Representative is a catch-all category, but that only makes the statistics associated with it more alarming. Millions of jobs fall under the heading “sales representative,” spanning telecoms, insurance, other financial services, retail, and several other fields. Across that entire array of jobs, women earn only 67.7% of what their male counterparts are paid. For every $902 they make, their male colleagues make $1,332. With this category, it’s a little easier to understand why. Only around a quarter of all the people who work in sales representative roles are female, and male sales advisors tend to be more trusted. They also tend to be better at persuading people to make larger purchases, which pushes up their commission earnings. Making a material change to the disparity here would likely take a generation of work.
Paramedics
There’s no excuse for a gender gap in the medical profession. There are no commission-based earnings and no difference in working conditions. Women should be paid every dime and cent as much as men, yet the gap is colossal. As a percentage of earnings, women get a diabolical $65.5 as much as men. The average pay for a female paramedic or emergency medical technician is $733. A man receives $1119. Only 28% of paramedics are female, so perhaps that has something to do with it. Health care is a traumatic, stressful job for which people are paid too little as it is. For women to be paid so much less than men is insulting. Frankly, there should be a never-ending protest within the profession about this, and we’re not sure why there isn’t.
Financial Advisors
Financial advice networks are often referred to as “old boys clubs,” and that’s an accurate description. Although women are breaking into the industry now, they still make up barely one-third of the workforce. A bulk of that one-third is in an entry-level or lower management position. Female financial advisors are still well-paid, earning an average of $980 per week, but the men they share the office with are getting $1662. That’s a chasmic pay gap of 58.9% from female to male. A raw deal on pay is just one of many problems women face as financial advisors. On average, they receive harsher punishments than men for the same misconduct offenses and tend not to be offered new jobs within the industry after dismissal from one. As with sales representatives, there’s so much work to be done in this sector that it will likely take an entire generation to set things straight.
I don’t think any of us are seriously surprised to hear that the world of financial advice is heavily biased towards men, but for paramedics to be in such a state is shocking. There’s no good reason for female teachers and real estate brokers to put up with the status quo either. We’re thankful for every positive step that’s been made in terms of balancing out male and female pay in the past two decades, but we’re a very long way from the end of the road. However, if the right actions are taken quickly, we hopefully won’t have to write another article like this in 2030.
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