Gender Wage Gap By Susan B. Anthony

One of the biggest problems facing women in the workplace is the wage gap separating men and women. Women, on average, get paid 77 cents on the dollar for every dollar a man makes. (Berman Huffington Post) This startling statistic is one many feminist use in arguing that sexism is not dead in this country. When women are not paid the same as men when doing the same job, it is like blatantly telling women that they are not good enough.

The gender wage gap in America is a social problem that has existed since women entered the workforce. According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, for every dollar earned by a man, a woman made 78.3 cents in 2013 (Leon-Guerrero, 2016). Data from 1983 to 1998 and concluded that women workers in their prime earning years make 38% of what men make. During the 15-year period, an average prime-age working woman earned only $273,592 compared with $722,693 earned by the average working man in 1999 (Leon-Guerrero, 2016). The wage gap affects women of color in a more profound way that it does non-hispanic white women. Hispanic women are making 53%, African American women are making 64%, and Asian American women are making 87% of white men’s earnings each year (AAUW, 2013).

The inequality of pay between a man and a woman grows when the woman's race is taken into consideration, statistically, white women earn seventy-eight cents, African-American women earn sixty-four cents and Latina women earn fifty-six cents for every dollar earned by a white man as stated on www. whitehouse.gov. This significant wage gap is not just a bunch of numbers -- it has real life consequences that affect real life women: women with growing children to feed, women of color, disabled women, aging women longing retirement, and your own

A black woman makes 64% of what a white male makes and HIspanic female makes 54% of that same White male. Again these are numbers but when put into actual perspective it's a lot more horrible. In some cases just because she was a female women earned less than the very people they monitored and supervised. “Kerri Sleeman worked for five years at a company that designed, built, and installed laser welding assembly systems. When she was hired, Sleeman said company officials told her they didn’t negotiate pay. In 2003, the company was forced into bankruptcy and employees had to go through bankruptcy court for their final paychecks. When Sleeman looked at the court’s list of claims, she was heartbroken. People she had supervised had larger claims for two weeks of pay than she did.” When it's possible that your subordinates earn more than you, you know there is a problem in our society. Kerri sleeman didn't even know she was being cheated until the end. But Cheryl Hughes knew she was at a disadvantage from the beginning. Between balancing being a single mother of two and being an engineer she couldn't overcome the Wage gap. She estimates that she lost nearly a million in wages and salary just because of her gender. If Ms.Hughes had any lower paying job like most of our country the percentile difference in wages would have had an even worse effect on her and her

The gender pay gap has been an issue forever. Wage discrimination exists when workers are equally qualified and perform the same work but one group of workers is paid more than another. “The American Association University of Women is releasing a new study that shows when men and women attend the same kind of college, pick the same major and accept the same kind of job, on average, the woman will still earn 82 cents to every dollar that a man earns” (Coleman)1. The pay gap is even greater for African-American and Latina women. African-American women earning 64 cents and Latina women earning 56 cents for every dollar earned by a white non-Hispanic man. Of course it’s a racial issue because the caucasians have always been the superior race. African American and Hispanic women are significantly less likely to graduate from high school or to get a bachelor’s degree than white

The most well-known limit placed upon women in a work setting is the wage gap, or the difference between a man’s salary and a woman’s salary. Authors dive into the subject of the current wage gap because of its presence in modern society, and one author who does speak out about the topic is Caroline Fredrickson. Fredrickson, president of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, writes in her book Under the Bus: How Working Women Are Being Run Over about how the gap between a man and woman’s salaries does exist in today’s progressive society. To argue her case, Fredrickson reveals, “In the past decade, women have not made any progress at all, with the wage gap overall remaining stubbornly at 77 percent…” (44). This gap of seventy seven percent implies that the majority of women are paid only seventy seven percent of what a man is paid in any given position.

The gender wage gap is a widespread and pressing issue. It is also a highly debated subject in the United States in which some refuse to even believe exists at all.

The gender wage gap is where men get paid more than women for doing the same job. The gender wage gap has been around since 1960, when women began working full time jobs outside the home. When the wage gap between women and men first became apparent, the issue primarily centered around discrimination against women as the “weaker sex”, a social stereotype. Today the issue has become more complex, involving American cultural norms and politics, and concerns that there are glass ceilings within businesses for women. As a result, many people are indecisive when it comes to taking a position on the matter while others are adamantly entrenched in their mind set. The fact of the matter is that women’s wages should match men’s wages whenever performance of duty is equal. The issue is that there should be equal pay for equal work. Wages should be based on education, experience, exposure, and location in that career field.

According to (Gillespie, 2014) and The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the pay gap affects almost all working women, it is especially bad for Latina, African American, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian full-time female workers. In 2014, Latina women's annual salaries averaged just 54 percent of what white men in the same jobs brought home. When we look solely at the salaries of people of color, the pay gap is smaller — but only because men of color are paid less than non-Latino white men. Furthermore, white women earn more than African American and Latina women who have the same level of education — so the pay gap is a racial discrimination issue,

Women are already paid less than men and then when you factor in race some women are paid even less. Black women even with education and experience see the greatest earnings disadvantage in comparison to white women (Browne, and Askew 2005). Research done between979 and 1998 for full-time workers, it’s reported that real wages for White and Black women increased. White women saw an increase around 16%, Black women saw only an 8% increase, and Latinas wages stagnated (Bowler, 1999). It is possible that what appears to be White women’s greater wage progress is actually due to education or skill advantage.

Women earn 77 cents for every dollar a male earns- this statistic has been utilized to promote the idea that there is institutionalized discrimination against females in the workplace. This misleading figure has been parroted by former President Barrack Obama; and has been propagated by social media: famous feminists like Emma Watson have spoken out about the gender pay gap, and have tried to assert that women are paid less for preforming the same jobs as men- but that is a blatant mistruth. The statistic conveniently omits nuance- and doesn’t accurately portray the American labor force. Almost every country in the Western world has legal ramifications for discriminating against someone on the basis of gender; and even with policies like affirmative

The disparity for women’s rights is a struggle which I have witnessed. My wife’s salary is not as high as some of her male counterparts in the education system. After reading the ACLU website on women’s rights, I can’t think of an exact reason on why there is a disparity but it is clear that there is unequal pay between men and women. The ACLU (2017) section on women’s rights states, “Women still make just 78 cents for every dollar earned by men. Black women earn only 64 cents and Latina’s only 54 cents for each dollar earned by white men”.

Gender inequality is primarily about the difference between the authority and positions that are offered to men and women. A study from 2014 shows that the gender pay gap is very well existing in all 50 states. “According to the U.S. Department of Labor, women make approximately 78 cents for every dollar a man makes.” (Huffington Post, 08/25/15) The difference in pay between women of color is even greater. African-American women only earn 64 cents for every dollar that a white man receives. Women that are Latino earn about 54 cents. Compared to their male counters, females only make 16 percent less money. A woman who works part or full-time only makes 84 percent of their male counterparts. Regardless of the gender both men and women should be paid equally for their jobs when they have the same qualifications. Situations like this do not support the value of equality, but instead lowers the

On average, women are payed 18% less than that of a man. This means that if two people are doing the same job at the same success rate, but one was a man, he could be payed anywhere from 35%-7% more than the woman. That’s almost $300 a week, if not more! The wage gap since 2014 has actually increased so now there needs to be even more exertion to try to close the gap. Not very surprisingly, women are over represented in low paying jobs and very underrepresented in the higher paying jobs. Disappointingly however, even in the higher paying jobs they are not being paid nearly as much as their male counterparts. This needs to be changed, there should be laws in place to make sure that all genders are paid equally, or at least a range that the workers pay has to stay

In fact, progress for women and minorities in terms of both pay and power has stalled or regressed at many of the nation's biggest companies. This inequality shapes perceptions about who can or should be a leader.” (Hymowitz, 2008) This statement shows applicable reasoning as to why it is necessary to have equal pay between women and men in the workplace. When a company decides they are going to pay someone less money solely based off their gender without regards to their experience, it is discrimination and therefore the company is no longer an equal opportunity employer. Such practices need to be banned so our nation can truly say that we are all equal. Women need to form an alliance to prevent such discrimination from occurring and force our government to prohibit inequality in companies.