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Gender Based Pay

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Over the generations society’s view of women has changed drastically; but these changes are not done yet. It will still take a long time for the necessary changes to occur. The stereotypical view of women is for them to be house wives. Their duties are to take care of the home and children; clean the home, dishes, laundry, and feed and raise the children to name a few. The Huff Post stated in an article, “Women still earned only 77 cents for every dollar that men earned in 2012, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau” (Women). Many forms of legislation have been put into place over the years to try and correct this but it is still a major problem today. Legislation such as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Equal Employment …show more content…

This legislation also does not take into account that women, if they are the primary care giver, will need to take extra time off for children. With this in mind, the employers can pay a male more with the reasoning that they are not a liability to the company. Males will not have to leave early due to children; they will not have to take time off ahead of time for children’s activities, and will also not have to leave for emergencies with children. This legislation has a large loophole that lets employers do this. (Equal Pay Act) By closing this loophole, women will also be able to break the “glass ceiling”. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines that glass ceiling as, “an unfair system or set of attitudes that prevents some people (such as women or people of a certain race) from getting the most powerful jobs” (Merriam-Webster).
The last act mentioned, the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, only guarantees the persons a chance at the job, or the possibility of getting the job. This means that when an employer is hiring, they must advertise that they are not discriminating. The company cannot refuse to interview a person on the basis of religion, sex, gender, age, or race. This act does not guarantee that the employer can hire based on these criteria. A company can hire they’re ideal persons from a large group and pick out only males if the interviewer prefers males. This is a loophole that needs to be closed.

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