Unequal Pay Issue

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).

“Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work” -Susan B. Anthony. Countless women, even here in the U.S. have some sort of the wage gap. The wage gap is the difference between the median earnings of women relative to median earnings of men. In this case, women earn a significant amount less than men. Although the wage gap has gotten smaller over the years, the wage gap still has a long way to go. Women deserve better than just minimum earnings. Full time, working women should obtain the best promotions and benefits. Women that work just as tough and have the equivalent qualifications as men do still earn less, and that is just unacceptable. The wage gap should be abolished on behalf of women of color and their struggle, equal pay is a global problem, equal pay benefits employers and workers, and the wage gap accumulates over time.

Women’s Civil Rights has always been an issue around the world. During World War II, women began working while the men were away at war. Once the men came back, the pay wage began between men and women. According to researchers, Beth Rowen and Borgna Brunner, between 1950 and 1960, women who had worked full-time jobs only earned around 60 cents to every dollar that their male counterparts earned. It was not until June 10, 1963 that the Equal Pay Act was passed by President Kennedy making it illegal for employers to pay women less than men in the same job title. In order to further progress of pay equity, Rosa Cho from Re:Gender.org, also found that President Kennedy proposed a Civil Rights Act to prohibit

Inequality is present in every corner of the United States of America. It comes in all different shapes and sizes; it may come in the form of race, ethnicity, sex, or even gender. To showcase how big of an issue it really is I will compare and contrast the differences between them. One of the most ongoing and present topics of inequality is race. The inequality often lies in the sense of income made by different races, the most common being white Americans making more than African Americans. In the 2011, the average income of the white American household was $110,000, while the African American household average was just over $6,000(Vega). The difference is jaw dropping, it would take no rocket scientist to realize there is some sort of inequality occurring between African Americans and White Americans. However, this is not the only type of inequality occurring. Inequality between gender is very similar to the inequality between ethnicities. The wage gap between genders seems to be the most prevalent topic among discussion at the present time. We fortunately live in a society and time where the fight for equality is very strong. We have seen so much change just within the past 5 years. “In 2015, women working full time in the United States typically were paid just 80 percent of what men were paid” (Miller). The difference in wage is jarring. From

The gender pay gap is the difference between male and female earnings averaged in percentages. This difference in pay due to gender seems like it would be an obsolete practice in the twenty-first century, but it is real and is affecting millions of women and households in the country. In 2014, women working full time in the United States were paid 79 percent on average of what men were being paid, which is a gap of approximately 21 percent. This means that in the United States, females earned 94 cents on average to every dollar earned by males. According to one study by the Department of Labor’s Chief Economist, a typical 25-year-old woman working full time would earn $5,000 less over the course of her working career than a typical 25-year old man working in the same career. The reason why this pay gap exists does expand into other factors such as education, experience, the work being performed, qualifications, age, and ethnicity which are taken into account. The studies being conducted on the pay gap has economists verifying that discrimination is the best overall explanation and factor of the difference in pay between males and females.

Even though women had same jobs as men, they did not receive equal salaries in the 1940s’. In these times employed women have traditionally fought for higher wages and better working conditions without the support of the trade-union movement. The campaigns of female workers led to the passage of the Equal Pay Act in 1970, which applied to the public and private sectors where men and women were engaged in the same or broadly similar work. As women have increased their participation in the labour market, their earnings have also increased. Median wage and salary income in 2010 dollars increased steadily for women in the U.S., from $7,352 in 1940 to $21,323 in 2008 (Appendix 1). In contrast, men's earnings peaked in 1970 at approximately $35.000;

An important federal employment law that all employees and employers should be aware of is the Equal Pay Act of 1963. As conversed in week nine of class discussion and video lecture, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 ends wage disparity based on sex. The main goal of this act was to ban discrimination in wages, benefits, and pensions based the gender of an employee in any place of employment. Women traditionally earned less than men for doing similar work. The United States has had a long history of knowledge of unequal pay between men and women, but it was not until around World War II that the problem arose and women started fighting for their rights on this issue. Women have tried passing several bills to help close this pay gap throughout the 1950’s, but ended up in failure.

Luckily for women, the American Women’s rights progressed tremendously since the late 1800’s, and the turning point for females was The Equal Pay Act in 1963. Women wanted more than their primary responsibilities of taking care of the home, children, and family. Although this law contributed significant changes in the development of the women in the workforce, it did come with unethical wages.

Women have made significant strides in society, proving themselves to be as capable as men in the workforce. However, while women are making equal contributions, men and women are not earning equal wages. Even though the Equal Pay Act was established in 1963, women continue to earn lower wages than men over half a century later. This inequality not only affects women as individuals but has a detrimental effect on the national economy. The gender wage gap in the United States should end because it is unjust; correcting it would have social and economic benefits for the U.S.

The gender wage gap issue was brought to light during WWII when women began to work in the war industries and began taking jobs and unequal pay. During this time the National War Labor Board asked employers to voluntarily make adjustments which equalize wage or salary rates paid to females with the rates paid to males for comparable quality and quantity of work. This request wasn’t just ignored, but after the war women were pushed out of their employment to make room for returning veterans.

2015. There is a pay gap in America where men are paid more than women even if they have the same job and have the same qualifications. On average, a woman earns 74 cents to every man’s dollar. When someone first graduate’s college and is new to the workforce, the gap as low. The gap grows as you move up the job ladder. Only 5% of the fortune 500 companies have CEO’s that are women. Even when women advance to this level, they are still not being paid the same as their male counterparts. Minority women have an even bigger pay gap. African-American women get paid on average about 64 cents for every man’s dollar, while Hispanic women only bring home around 54 cents for every man’s dollar. There is no industry or state where women earn the same or more than

On June 10, 1963, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act this law made it illegal to pay women lower wage rates for the same job strictly based on their sex. Before that, separate job listings for men and women advertised in newspapers with different pay scales for the same jobs with the highest-level jobs advertising for men only. Subsequently, two important court cases, Schultz vs. Wheaton Glass (1970) which ruled jobs only need to be substantially equal and not identical to be protected under the Equal Pay Act and Corning Glass Works vs. Brennan (1974) that determined women could not be paid less simply because they would work at a lower pay rate than men helped to strengthen and further define the Equal Pay Act (Rowen). Although the Equal Pay Act and the civil rights laws that followed helped change the workplace and began to combat wage inequality these laws have not closed the persistent gap between women’s and men’s wages.

Government has tackled the issue of pay equity for several decades, through a string of Acts. The issue arose as part of the discussion of civil rights in the 1960s but the conversation continues today. The concept of equal pay for equal work has philosophical roots in the doctrine of equality, where all Americans are considered to be equal under the law and entitled to equal rights. The issue of equal pay became a public policy topic as a means of enforcing this equality doctrine. This paper will discuss not only the doctrine, but the history of equal pay legislation from the Civil Rights Act to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.

For every seventy-eight cents a female is working a man is working one dollar. This is more than just a statistic, it has real consequences ("Did You Know That Women Are Still Paid Less Than Men?"). If men and women work the same hours and jobs but they don’t pay the same, 79 cents per a girl makes to every dollar a guy makes, that starts to add up. What is the Equal Pay Act? The Equal Pay Act requires that men and women in the same workplace be given equal pay for equal work. The jobs need not be identical, but they must be substantially equal. Job content (not job titles) determines whether jobs are substantially equal ("Facts About Equal Pay and Compensation

Putting this all together, the trend is that the most amount of full-time female workers are cramped into ten industries that pay a man (in that industry) more. This leads to a comprehensive greater wage gap, since more females work in industries with a much higher wage gap (female dominated industries) than males in male dominated industries where they would get paid less than in female dominated industries, but still more than a woman would make in any industry. Not to mention, 66% of all workers in low wage occupations are women, and are paid 85% of a man’s wage. Another variable that affects the gender wage gap’s development is the race and age of the female employee. As all people age, they get paid more, but the wage gap also skyrockets. On average, in the U.S., women working full time ages 15-24 get paid 91.1% of what men their age get (without including any other variables), but women working full time ages 45-64 only get paid 76.4% of what men their age get (without including any other variables). This shows that in 30-40 years a woman’s wage could drop 14.7% percent compared to what men their age make. A woman’s race is also an extensive factor in the wage gap. Looking at this variable only, it appears that white women have the upper hand over