The workplace is a common spot for people to compete for jobs, promotions, and increases in pay. Many relationships are created and maintained while working, helping business stay profitable and engaging. The only problem is sometimes these people all compete for the same promotion or bonus, and things can go south very quickly. Many businesses and organizations have fallen or lost key members of their team because of this intense competition. The main issue is this competition for higher or equal pay. Sometimes, this issue can even destroy organizations altogether. The bottom line is companies need to start to realize that if people have the wrong conception of how the business is dealing with its employees, it could end the company for good.

The United States Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) hit a road block last year when they went on strike and demanded equal pay to their male counterparts on the Unites States Men’s National Soccer Team (USMNT). After winning four Olympic gold medals and three World Cup titles, the USWNT decided they had had enough of the minimal pay compared to the USMNT (O'Donnell). The whole team came together and said they wouldn’t play any more games until the pay was increased, if not equalized. Just for comparison, the USWNT star goalie, Hope Solo, made a total of $366,000 for playing 23 games, which is roughly $16,000 a game (O'Donnell). The USMNT goalie, Tim Howard, made a similar amount, $398,495 but only played 8 games (O'Donnell). This comes out to an astounding $50,000 a game. As these statistics show, the USMNT clearly makes more money than the USWNT; but, is it defendable at all? 

Worldwide, men’s sports are watched in higher numbers than women’s. Granted, the USWNT deserve higher pay since they perform so well, but they approached the situation in the wrong way. Even though they perform better than the men’s team, the revenue brought in from sponsors, TV advertisements, and ticket sales, is far less than the men’s team which is why they do not get paid as much. When they realized this, they began to do a little more research and fought the inequality at its core, the United States Soccer Federation, or USSF for short. 

Both the women’s and men’s national teams are run by the same organization, which is where the United States Women’s National Soccer Team targeted their protest. Since the USSF owns both teams, they collect all the revenue and pay their players how they want. The USSF came under huge fire for this and had to do something about the issue before it ruined the whole women’s program. The United States Soccer Federation did in fact eventually increase the pay for the USWNT but nowhere near the USMNT (O'Donnell). This may not equal pay, but the USSF simply cannot distribute more money to the United States Women’s National Soccer Team when they do not contribute nearly as much of a percentage of revenue to the organization. This is just one of the many examples of organizations and business falling because of competition or comparison to their colleagues.

Another example of inequality is the pay differential among people of different races, ethnicities, and genders. For example, the American Association of the University of Women, also known as the AAUW, did a study on differences in pay among different genders, races, and ethnicities. Surprisingly, the statistics for salary and benefits were very different for each race and gender. The study showed that Asian men and women make more money over a year than any other race at about $50,000-$60,000 (AAUW). In addition to their higher average salaries, Asian men and women have greater benefits with their jobs than any other group of people (AAUW). The lowest paid workers were Hispanic women at about $30,000 and Hispanic men at $33,000 per year (AAUW). White men and women were the second highest paid workers, but why are different genders and more specifically races paid in such vast differences in amounts?

The reason behind all of the differences in pay and benefits is because of today’s society and how people view different races and the opposite gender. As the years go on, more and more things become unacceptable to say or do because of the changing society. For instance, nowadays if a person’s opinion contradicts a current movement, like the feminist movement, gay rights movement, or black lives matter movement, people get offended much quicker. Many riots and shootings such as the riots in Ferguson or the shooting at the Orlando night club happened due to people protesting certain actions or opinions of others. While this is not directly related to businesses and companies, it is translated to their employees as people take sides in defending what they think is right. This in turn can cause white males to not want to hire black workers or if they do, pay them less. Also, other businesses that do not support gay rights may refuse work to those who are homosexual. The domino effect is thus begun and people form stronger opinions against things they do not believe in which bleeds into their work and creates a hostile working environment.

One person who has contributed to the rise in conflicting opinions is President Donald Trump; people either love him or hate him. While he is our president, his whole campaign was based off of degrading women, specifically his opponent Hillary Clinton, as well as trying to stir up white males to bringing back the old America. Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump would say controversial things that would anger many Americans but also rile up some in the process. For example, due to his presidency, many older hate groups such as the Klu Klux Klan (KKK) and other white supremacists have come out of hiding and backed Trump and his beliefs. Recently, when the riots happened in Charlottesville, VA, KKK members and many white supremacists protested the taking down of the Robert E Lee statue. This caused a mass hysteria because there were many people with very opposing views rioting and protesting against each other. This can be translated into the business world as possibly employers have their own opinions on certain matters and not want to work with those who have opposing views; but, since some companies require non-opinionated hiring, the employers will pay them less to make up for the fact that they have to hire them. Normally, the employers have opinions to certain groups of people which is why the statistics show certain races and genders being payed less.

A hot topic in the media and politics in recent years is the wage gap between men and women in corporate America. This is a very sensitive topic to many people since it is about their salaries and relations in their work. What people do not understand is that it is not as big of a gap or a gap at all for everyday workers (EBRD). According to a Wall Street Journal article, the difference in pay is virtually nonexistent in lower level jobs (Graphics). What people commonly misconstrue is the fact that the average salaries goes from entry level jobs like cashiers or fast food employees to C-Suite officials. In entry level jobs, the ratio of men to women working is nearly 1:1 with men taking up 54% of jobs and women taking 46% of jobs (Graphics). On the contrary, C-Suite officials are mostly men working with 81% of the population men and 19% women (Graphics). This is where the statistics become swayed. Since so many more men are working the higher level and higher paying jobs, the percentage of income between the two genders is much wider than that of entry level jobs. This then affects the jobs below them and disproportions the ratio of earnings among men and women (Graphics) (DeSilver). What the news portrays of the wage gap is merely a count of all the men working and all the women working and an average of their salaries, which clearly represents that men make more since more men hold higher paying job titles (@Catalyst Inc). In addition, the averaging of salaries does not take into account how many more men are working then women. Jobs such as construction or plumbing, are normally done by men, but are not bound to them, which also makes the data one sided. Since more men are working, there are more and more guys who make money that contributes positively to the salary average, further corrupting the wage gap statistics.

While the workplace is normally a place where people can interact, enjoy each other, as well as make money, issues due tend to arise. Whether they stem from employers hiring new team members to current employees having issues with each other over pay or opinions, businesses have to compromise and settle the quarrels before they get to out of hand. The USSF did not do the greatest job in settling the issue of pay between the United States Women’s National Soccer and the United States Men’s National Soccer Team but they did work it out to where the USWNT ended up settling for their increase in pay and continued to play their regular and post season games. There is still issues with the media improperly displaying the wage gap to its viewers that corrupts workers and causes them to demand equality, but that will never change. Overall, there are many issues in today’s society relating to gender, race, and opinions that affect so many businesses that it may not be long until some big, multi-national corporation is slammed and comes crashing down.
