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Gender Inequality Of Equal Pay For Women

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Introduction:
On January 29, 2016, The White House Press Office released a FACT SHEET on new steps to advance equal pay for women. This FACT SHEET states that,
“the median wage of a woman working full-time all year in the United States is about $39,600—only 79 percent of a man’s median earnings of $50,400” (The White House, 2016).
However, many scholars and economists disagree that a gender wage gap exists. In addition, conservative political experts and bloggers promote the notion that gender based wage gap is an idea propagated by feminists, women empowering organizations, and progressives. However, almost all the working women in the United States, and organizations such as Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IRWP), and American Association of University Women (AAAU), strongly believe in the existence of the gender wage gap.
This sociological issue of equal pay for women is extremely relevant in today’s environment where women perform equal work as men in many occupations. Furthermore, with almost 50% of the work force being women, women contributing equally to the family income, and a large number of women being the single parents supporting children, lack of equal pay over time could increase the poverty rates for women (White House, 2016). In addition, IWPR’s 2015 report on the status of American women, states that if women receive equal pay for the same work, the poverty rate among women will see a reduction from 8.2% to 4%, an almost 50% reduction (Hess et

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