Objectives of the Research Proposal

Analyse the differences in gender education and its impact on the life time income earned by two genders.

One of the major purposes of an employee or a labor of a company is to earn an income in the form of salary or compensation. The perception of productivity of work is distinguished into two aspects such as individual productivity and organizational productivity. There are various reasons embedded which affect the income of workers such as nationality, gender difference, education difference, size of company and profitability. The main purpose of the research is to evaluate the various aspects which influence the income of two genders. The research proposal initiates with the different objectives of the project pursued by the project scope, where the importance of the research is analyzed. The literature review section entails several concepts vital for the research study and better understanding of the researcher. The gap will be analyzed to define the various aspects regarding the income of workers. At last, the conclusion will be drawn from the study of a research proposal which will provide a better understanding about the income of workers.

The main objective of the research is to find out the causes which may affect the income of workers. The incomes of workers are the major  motivating factor within the organization that enables the employee to do work accordingly. The objectives of this research proposal are mentioned below:

• To investigate the importance of income from the point of view of employees or labors.
• To analyze the causes that may affect the income of workers significantly.
• To assess the influence of benefits on employee performance within the organization.

The scope of the research topic is wide because it has several aspects that affect the income of workers.  The project is determined by various regular authorities in the organization as it aims to provide the the specific knowledge that incomes of workers keep huge importance for improving the productivity. The research proposal will cover the gap that has discussed at the end of the literature review

According to Zander, Botzen, Oppermann, Kjellstrom  and Garnett, (2015), it has been found that the demographic characteristics are linked with dissimilarity in returns to investments in education and one of these is gender. Lips, (2013) suggested that it can be seen in various areas of the world that women are getting lower wages in comparison of men even though they are working in the organization for full time and similarly educated. It has been mentioned by Chandra, Jimenez and Radhakrishnan, (2017), that the main reason behind earning less in comparison of men is gender roles in family responsibilities such as women are more likely to take time for caring her family. They also advocate that women should be concentrated in low paying fields of study and less focused in higher demands areas like engineering. There is another factor of affecting the income of workers. The age of an individual can have an influence on returns to education. There are major two folds in age and earnings where age shows the many potential years of experience in the market for labor. Due to fewer experience in working in comparison of older counterparts, younger workers tend to command lower earnings (Schofield, et. al., 2015).

Literature Review on Factors Affecting the Income of Workers

The income of workers has huge importance in the organization as it is able to increase the productivity of the workers through direct incentives effects. It encourages them to work more in an organization but due to discrimination at workplace, workers are distracted from the work and started to explore new opportunities which influence the revenues of the organization. It has been described by O’Reilly, Smith, Deakin and Burchell, (2015),  that the productivity of the worker increases with switches to piece rate payments with effects of worker sorting. Wages are considered as the primary source which includes smaller sources such as investment income, government aid. High wages of workers would be benefitted for them as they can live their lives in lavish ways, on the other hand, they can fulfill the basic needs of lives. There are so many companies that adopt good compensation philosophy to attract motivate and retain employees. The companies are using a mixture of three components to complete the goals of the company that involves basic pay also referred as salary, benefits, and non-financial rewards. A pay philosophy is a mixture of all three components as discussed above since the company should pay for whatever it provides to employees.

The flexibilities in wages are the major topic of the economy which can be easily found in the literature regarding the provisions of incentives given by the company. There is various theoretical models support company to define that how the company should make different schemes to motivate an employee for increasing the revenues (Lips, 2013). The income of workers is the most advantageous factor that contributes to the revenues of the companies. There are many companies such as Westpac Australia, Deloitte Australia, Land lease and many more that give huge incentives to the employees which are the cause of good returns.

It has been researched by Blau, (2016), that gender inequality and unequal pay are the major concerns that are faced by female employees worldwide. It is vital for the companies to raise the awareness about this concerns and it has been found that the consciousness is developing about this concern between corporations but at a significantly slower velocity. There are various reasons such as the unsafe workplace, racism, sexual harassment and unfairness in promotions to a senior position. According to Friedman, Laurison and Macmillan, (2017), the gapping in pay influence the entire backgrounds of women, at all ages, and entire levels of attainment of education, even though earnings and the gap fluctuate depending on the individual situation of a woman. It has been found in 2016 among full-time workers that Black or African American, Hispanic, American Indian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander had lesser median earnings annually in comparison with Asian women and non-Hispanic (AAUW, 2018).

The Impact of Discrimination on Organizational Productivity

There are women of Hispanic, Black, and AIAN who have smaller gender pay gap in comparison to men in the similar group. Benchmark is the effective tool that is able to provide a clear picture in a more informative way. It has been researched that female employees in the entire world are facing challenges in the form of ‘gender pay gap’ due to get less salary for similar work in a comparison to male employees. The role of human resource department in a big corporation is huge to increase the discrimination as they do not allow female employees to get promoted due to their personal responsibilities (Wilson & Tagg, 2010). According to the latest report by Human Resources Director, the data of 2016-17 is provided by Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) described that a large number of corporations has taken various schemes to reduce the concern of gender pay imbalance.  The director of WGEA stated that approx four million employees are involving under this issue and enhance the awareness about the gender inequality (Hilton, 2017).

As per WGEA, (2017), number of advancements occurred all over the world but the gender gap can be seen in Australia. Recently it has been observed from the report that the gender pay gap of 15.3% in Australia still exists and the earning of male employees is higher than female instead of having same positions and skills. The department of HR in different corporations have executed policies to reduce the concern of gender inequality, yet still, a wide range of percentage of women face discrimination at the workplace in Australia.

It has been found by various researchers that nationality has huge influence on the income of workers. It has been suggested by the literature of Peri, (2012), that immigrants who are newly arrived might face many difficulties in the labor market of the Australian Country. For instance, newly immigrant might have to face issues with the new customs and languages and due to lack of connection with the people; they would be unable to find out the suitable job. It has been analyzed that the qualifications and experiences have huge importance in the host country and when newly arrived immigrant has overqualified in their educations and the qualifications of immigrants are not identified in the labour market of the host country, it would certainly put impact on the pay scale of the employees (Lindley, 2009). It would become vital for the immigrants to learn the skills, languages and knowledge to live in the host country which would be benefitted them to get higher salaries.

Compensation Philosophy and Its Role in Addressing Pay Gaps

As per EHRC, (2017), to make the difference as per the ethnic pay gap instead of focusing immigrant pay gap, the situation would be more diverse and complex. It is difficult to make a comparison between dissimilar countries due to have dissimilar immigration histories. The income of workers gets influenced due to different tax scale of the country as the newly arrived immigrant has to face the issue of tax policy. Nationality can impact the income of workers as it has been observed that due to being the part of the country. Citizens of the home country have great confidence regarding laws and legislation of the country and due to effective knowledge about the place and government, the salary structure of them is quite high in comparison to others. The research has been conducted by Dias, Joyce and Parodi, (2018), in multiple countries and found that the role of education is wider in comparison of any aspect because there is the affirmative correlation between the level of education and potential of earnings for salaried individuals.

Along with that, it has been found that the national income plays the effective role in providing the income to the workers. It has been analyzed that 2.3 million of workers of Australia are lowest paid workers who get a $22.20 a week pay rise. The national minimum wage has risen by 3.3 percent from July 2017 (SBS, 2017). It has been analyzed from the news of Australia that Aussies who work in the dangerous industry of Australia that is most likely to die on the workplace but the income of them is quiet lower in comparison of office workers (Carey,2015). These dangerous industries are shown in the appendix area of this research which shows the average income and rank of these industries around Australia.

 There are so many companies all over the world that are working under top rank companies while some companies are not that much well known. It is apparent that the income of workers can get influenced due to the size of the company and the profitability; it would not be possible for the small companies to provide the higher scale of pay to the employee. The role of profitability is necessary to pay the employees in the form of incentives or bonuses. There are many companies that build the most profit per employee and certainly, the total income and revenues of the company can impact the income of workers. There are most significant examples of Apple Company that made over $45.5 billion in profits over its last fiscal year. The profit per employee of Apple Company was $400,000 per employee.

Size of Company and Its Impact on Workers’ Income

It has been found from various incidents that the human resource department of modern corporations is unable to reduce the impact of issues of gender inequality and unequal pay gap. There is a BBC Company where more than 170 woman employees are facing issues related to unequal pay gap in the organization. In BBC Company, several female workers are getting lesser income in comparison to men despite having same skills and capabilities of working (Kentish, 2018). Along with that, there are many other factors that may influence the income of workers such as fringe benefits, the demand of industries and specified skills of workers. Google is the company that provides the fringe benefits in the form of non-financial rewards which has been added to the basic pay of the workers. It was apparent that companies of Australia need to consider the skills and competencies instead of focusing on gender inequality. The world has been changing rapidly and the contributions of female employees are huge in the changing world. There is a number of female workers all over the world that has reached at top level of positions such as Lynn Good (Chief Executive Officer of Duke Energy), Susan Wojcicki (CEO of YouTube), Ginny Rometty (CEO of IBM). These examples are shown that women can do anything in her life instead of having various responsibilities. The incomes of these women are equivalent to men who have same position (Lagerberg, 2016). It is vital for the organizations of Australian to focus on equal pay act that will be helpful to reduce the adverse impact on income of workers due to inequality.

The research gaps are analyzed on the basis of literature review which facilitates reader to understand the significance of the research. The first research gap is the future of casual/part-time workers and one in four Australian employees is casual workers. The future of casual/part-time workers is not covered under this research which can be enlarged by considering the data of Australia (AEST, 2017). Most of the research is evolved around the unequal pay but it can be more discussed other causes which may influence the income of workers. The second gap is found under this research is the consequences of social economic, social and political factor which should be considered under this research because employee rate, inflation, organizational behaviour of the place affect the income of workers significantly (Buddelmeyer, Wooden and Ghantous, 2007). The factor of higher and lower salary is considered under this research. However, the higher salary is described for showing the inequality in gender despite having similar skills in which various examples are elaborated in-depth manner. Another research gap are found that researcher can focus on gender inequality by taking various different skills of both genders which may put a significant impact on the literature review. The importance of income can be researched in depth manner by the researcher to show the value of it in the life of both genders.

Nationality and Its Influence on Income of Workers

Conclusion

In the limelight of above discussion about the chosen topic, it can be concluded that the role of income in development of organizations as well as the economy of the country is wider. It facilitates to increase the productivity of the employees. It is essential for the corporate world to understand that the unequal pay due to gender inequality can become an adverse situation for the country. The world has been changing rapidly and the involvement of women in the development of the economy of the country is huge. The literature review has been structured by taking help of various journal, articles, internet sources and news to support the statement. The strategy of Equal Pay Act should be embedded in the corporate world for reducing the issues of unequal pay. The examples of various top companies have been emphasized to represent the impact of company profitability and size on the income of workers.  

References

AAUW, 2018. The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay GaP. Available at: https://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/. Accessed on 28th April 2018.

AEST, 2017. The costs of a casual job are now outweighing any pay benefits. Available at: https://theconversation.com/the-costs-of-a-casual-job-are-now-outweighing-any-pay-benefits-82207. Accessed on 28th April 2018.

Blau, F.D., 2016. Gender, inequality, and wages. OUP Catalogue.

Buddelmeyer, H., Wooden, M. and Ghantous, S., 2007. Transitions from casual employment in Australia. Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, University of Melbourne.

Carey, A. 2015. Workers in Australia’s most dangerous jobs barely paid above nation’s average wage. Available at: https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/workers-in-australias-most-dangerous-jobs-barely-paid-above-nations-average-wage/news-story/529435c6f14dd224aa36f9816d505f0f. Accessed on 26th April, 2018.

Chandra, S., Jimenez, J. and Radhakrishnan, R., 2017. Accessibility evaluations for nighttime walking and bicycling for low-income shift workers. Journal of Transport Geography, 64, pp.97-108.

Dias, M.C., Joyce, R. and Parodi, F., 2018. The gender pay gap in the UK: children and experience in work.

EHRC, 2017. The Ethnicity Pay Gap. Available at: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/research-report-108-the-ethnicity-pay-gap.pdf. Accessed on 26th April, 2018.

Friedman, S., Laurison, D. and Macmillan, L., 2017. Social mobility, the class pay gap and intergenerational worklessness: New insights from the Labour Force Survey.

Hilton, J., 2017. Is HR doing enough to address gender inequality?. Retrieved from https://www.hcamag.com/hr-business-review/leadership-development/is-hr-doing-enough-to-address-gender-inequality-244874.aspx

https://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/.

Kentish, B., 2018. BBC gender pay gap: 170 female employees demand apology over salary differences and ‘culture of discrimination’. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bbc-gender-pay-gap-employees-apology-bbc-women-nuj-tony-hall-select-committee-a8184306.html

Lagerberg, F., 2016.Women in business: turning promise into practice. Retrieved from https://www.grantthornton.global/en/insights/articles/women-in-business-2016/

Lindley, J., 2009. The Over-education of UK Immigrants and Minority Ethnic Groups: Evidence from the Labour Force Survey’, Economics of Education Review, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 80-9.

Lips, H. M., 2013. The gender pay gap: Challenging the rationalizations. Perceived equity, discrimination, and the limits of human capital models. Sex Roles, 68(3-4), 169-185.

O’Reilly, J., Smith, M., Deakin, S. and Burchell, B., 2015. Equal pay as a moving target: International perspectives on forty-years of addressing the gender pay gap. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 39(2), pp.299-317.

Peri, G., 2012. The effect of immigration on productivity: Evidence from US states. Review of Economics and Statistics, 94(1), pp.348-358.

SBS, 2017. Minimum wage for low-paid workers to rise from 1st July. Available at: https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/hindi/en/article/2017/06/06/minimum-wage-low-paid-workers-rise-1st-july Accessed on 26th April, 2018.

Schofield, D., Cunich, M., Kelly, S., Passey, M.E., Shrestha, R., Callander, E., Tanton, R. and Veerman, L., 2015. The impact of diabetes on the labour force participation, savings and retirement income of workers aged 45-64 years in Australia. PloS one, 10(2), p.e0116860.

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Zander, K.K., Botzen, W.J., Oppermann, E., Kjellstrom, T. and Garnett, S.T., 2015. Heat stress causes substantial labour productivity loss in Australia. Nature Climate Change, 5(7), p.647.