There’s no question that inequality has ruled the workplace for years. Even today, the gender pay gap is holding strong. In 2020, women in the U.S. earned just 84% of what their male counterparts made. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
While things may not be “fixed” at the moment, they are finally being exposed with increased public scrutiny of employers who don’t uplift female workers as high as they do their male employees.
At this point, we need more than equal pay. Employers need to offer increased care and benefits to female employees who have been underrepresented in the past.
Equality in Traditionally Biased Industries
There has been an increased presence of female representation in typically male-dominated industries over the last few years, including the construction industry. In 2018, over 1 million women were working in the industry, and while those statistics are encouraging, it’s important to point out potential areas of inequality.
Safety measures, training and education all need to be offered to women in male-dominated industries. This includes training women in all technological advances that could improve their careers while keeping them safe on the job.
Unfortunately, some people believe male-dominated industries should stay that way and may go so far as to sabotage a woman’s success through:
- Bullying
- Harassment
- Stereotypes
- Gender bias
- Discrimination
The trucking industry, another traditionally male-dominated field, is another area where these issues can become problematic. If you’re involved in the transportation field, you can protect your female workers and encourage more gender diversity by offering stable schedules, encouraging a strong work-life balance and having a strong policy against discrimination and harassment.
Informing Female Employees of Their Rights
Women deserve equal pay and benefits, but they also deserve to know their rights when working for you.
One of the obstacles many women have to overcome in the workplace is finding ways to make sure their child is cared for at home. For all employees, this is ultimately why a work-life balance is so important and has become a priority among different workplaces. For women, a fair work-life balance goes beyond simply spending more time at home. It’s also about making sure they can provide for their families financially.
Along with providing adequate pay, business owners should also inform their employees who are parents of tax breaks that can benefit them. You may not be able to offer any of your own, but the federal government provides tax credits to mothers with children at home.
For 2021, the numbers associated with those benefits have shifted slightly, and they’re likely to change again during the next fiscal year. As an employer, staying on top of those changes and bringing those breaks up to your female employees can put extra money in their pockets as they file their taxes.
There are countless ways businesses can better care for their female employees, and equality and fairness should be at the very core. Women deserve to feel safe, cared for and represented no matter what industry they’re in. If you’re looking for ways to bolster the women in your workplace, keep these ideas in mind, and create in-house policies designed to ensure equality among your workers.
This blog is printed with permission.
About the author: Dan Matthews is a writer, content consultant, and conservationist. While Dan writes on a variety of topics, he loves to focus on the topics that look inward on mankind that help to make the surrounding world a better place to reside. When Dan isn’t working on new content, you can find him with a coffee cup in one hand and searching for new music in the other.
