New Report Published — Cherry Hill Gender Wage Gap Analysis
By: Cameron Crawford, Rise Against Hate Fundraising and Grant Intern
In Rise Against Hate’s recently published report, Cherry Hill Gender Wage Gap Data Analysis, we analyzed ten years of data in order to investigate whether there is a gender wage gap present for employees of Cherry Hill Township in New Jersey.
A need for this research came after the governor of New Jersey passed legislation aimed at ending workplace discrimination, mandating employers pay their employees the same wage for similar qualities of work.¹ Unfortunately, even after the passing of this legislation in 2018, a gender wage gap still persists in the state of New Jersey
A key takeaway from the study is that female employees of Cherry Hill Township had a steady pay increase with respect to their years of service, whereas males did not. However, this is because female employees generally had a much lower starting salary than their male counterparts. Despite the increase in pay over time for female employees, they never reached salary levels equal to their male coworkers.
Our study also found that a senior female employee in a Director of Communications role had a lower wage than her male subordinate. The data showed that there are clear discrepancies between the wages of female and male employees in Cherry Hill Township in areas such as starting salaries, final salaries, and employees of the same role.
The gender wage gap is not an issue exclusive to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, but is present throughout the nation and the rest of the world. It occurs nationally and globally, due to a variety of reasons, such as a lack of equal opportunities in education and work experience.² However, as gender equality continues to improve, women have been given more opportunities in these areas, slowly causing this opportunity gap to close. Yet, there are some aspects of the gender wage gap, such as gender discrimination and motherhood, that are fundamental to these discrepancies.
Gender discrimination is a serious issue within many work places, wherein women are simply not given the respect or equality that is given to male counterparts of the same environment. This has the ability to affect both the work and pay of women. Additionally, motherhood often interrupts a woman’s career, due to labor, maternity leave, and a possible need to take a couple years off from work or a reduction of hours. Following this, women may not be granted fair opportunities back into their previous positions or may need fewer working hours. Clearly, the gender wage gap is a complex issue that stems from a wide breadth of causes.
To learn more, check out the Cherry Hill Gender Wage Gap Data Analysis report on the Rise Against Hate website!
Resources
Barroso, Amanda, and Anna Brown. “Gender Pay Gap in U.S. Held Steady in 2020.” Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center, May 25, 2021. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/25/gender-pay-gap-facts/.
“Governor Murphy Signs Historic, Sweeping Equal Pay Legislation.” Office of the Governor. The State of New Jersey, April 24, 2018. https://nj.gov/governor/news/news/562018/approved/20180424a_equalpay.shtml.
Richter, Felix. “Where The Gender Pay Gap Is Widest.” Statista Infographics, March 6, 2019. https://www.statista.com/chart/13182/where-the-gender-pay-gap-is-widest/.
