The Gender Pay Gap: An Ongoing Battle for Equality in the Workplace

For many years women have fought for their beliefs. For example- a woman’s right to vote, work, and do the same jobs men do. They’ve done marches, speeches, and protests. Women like Eleanor Roosevelt and Esther Peterson. They made their voices heard. So why do we still have men and women discrimination? Why do we men and women get paid differently at “same paying jobs.” Is it right or wrong? I support women; I believe they should get paid equally.

President Kennedy signed into law on June 10, 1963, requiring men and women within a given organization to be paid equally for work that is materially the same stop abolishing wage disparity depending on sex. Women wouldn’t get paid nearly as close as men did back then. It has been 56 years since the equal pay act became law, but industries, businesses, and a wide variety of jobs are paying women and men differently. It still happens many years later. Women lose about thousands a year compared to men’s salaries. Why should we let men get paid more even though they do the same work?

Current leaders such as Donald Trump don’t have much to say about this topic other than “The pay gap isn’t an issue to worry about” (Flaherty ). He’s called for allowing parents to deduct the “average” cost of child care from their taxable income if the parents earn under a certain, unspecified amount. But when asked, Hillary Clinton responded, “Well, I am a proud lifelong fighter for women’s issues because I firmly believe what’s good for America.” (Flaherty) It’s already illegal to pay women less for the same job or deny them a raise because of their sex, and the pay gap has narrowed dramatically in recent decades. Even the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, has shown through both her actions and words that she is deeply concerned about women’s equality in the workplace. Women live quality lives with unfair obstacles.

Take this as an example. According to one analysis by the Department of Labor’s Chief Economist, a typical 25-year-old woman working full time would have already earned $5,000 less over the course of her working career than a typical 25-year-old man. If that earning gap is not corrected, by age 65, she will have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars over her working lifetime. (Coukos) Women are losing so much, it’s slipping through their fingers, and so many people don’t realize that. Bloomberg found only one of 285 major’s occupations where women’s median pay was high than a man’s. “The pay gap isn’t a myth, it’s a reality—and it’s our job to fix it” (Paquette)

The federal government does not regularly analyze how females and employees are paid relative to men or why, but two studies in the past decade indicate that women may be getting short shrift. The average pay gap in the federal workforce ranged from 11 to 13 percent. In other words, women earned 87 cents to 89 cents to the dollar compared to men. It hasn’t narrowed much in the past 15 years, and it tends to be worse for women of color too. Black women earn about 63 percent of what white men make and share 67 percent with Hispanic women. (Boccia)

Other Countries have stepped up and have taken action about this situation. Iceland passed a law that by January 2022, companies must prove they are paying equal wages for equal work or pay fines. Germany passed a law that went into effect in January 2018, which gives women and men who feel disadvantaged the right to learn the salary of co-workers in the same job. In 2017, five US states—California, Colorado, Delaware, Nevada, and Oregon—as well as Puerto Rico passed pay equality laws. (Women’s Earnings: The Wage Gap”) They are putting a stop to this problem, but still, some states and countries are giving unequal pay right under their noses.

The other side of this argument would be to leave this problem as it is. Let’s let women and men get paid differently, fine. Despite the fact it’s the same job, same workplace, and same experience- women should get paid less than men do. Let’s let 886,358 female federal employees get paid $2,869 less than men for the same work, a collective $2.5 billion. (Elis) But the fact is that can’t be. It is wrong. The same-sex with the same job, same hours, and same effort should be paid equally. Their sex shouldn’t get in the way of that. “Equal pay for equal work is an old problem” (Gardner)

In the future, when I have a job, I would love to get paid the same, just like the person next to me who has the same job. Wouldn’t you like the same for yourself? Why lose thousands in your next job? Why wait until it happens to you? This question shouldn’t still be asked. The problem is old and already should’ve been solved. All women, your best friend or daughter, should get paid the same as men do, despite their sex difference. The problem should come to an end.

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