The Wage Gap Is Real
It’s a shocking fact that women are paid only 77 cents to every dollar a man makes. I personally had a hard time believing it because, in my head, it is obvious that women should be paid equally.
The year is 2015 in the United States. Women and men are equal and can do the same jobs, so they should receive the same salary, right?
Wrong.
Women and men do not make the same amount of money in nearly every occupation in every single state, according to The American Association of University Women (AAUW). Washington D.C. is the best place in the United States for pay equality, with women making 91 cents to every man’s dollar, while Louisiana is the worst, where women are paid 66 cents to every dollar a man makes.
For those who think the average pay of 77 cents to every dollar is not a big deal, let’s look at the math. If a man makes $100,000 with this discrepancy in pay, a women makes $77,000. That is $23,000 less than her male co-worker. As a society, the real question we should be asking is, “Why is this still happening? Why in today’s society is their still a wage gap among men and women?”
A USA Today article suggests one of the reasons women make less money than men is because they tend to enter jobs which generally pay less, such as education or social sciences, while men typically enter fields in engineering or computer science.
However, when men and women are in the same occupation, women still earn seven percent less than men, according to the AAUW. The rationale behind the difference is vague and non-specific.
The Center for American Progress reported that more than 40% of the gender wage gap is “unexplained,” meaning that there is no obvious, measurable reason for a difference in pay. However, gender discrimination is one potential factor for the difference in pay.
Women are more likely to take more time off of work than men when it comes to taking maternity leave, raising their children or caring for other family members. Thus a woman’s work experience is more abbreviated resulting in lesser pay.
Another element people do not think of regarding the wage gap is sexual harassment which results in discrimination. According to the WAGE Project, their webpage states, “After long and repeated sexual harassment, women leave or lose their jobs, potential raises, promotions, opportunities, emotional stability, ability to work, and sometimes their lives.”
After college, women also tend to take minimum wage jobs to begin paying off their college loans right away, according to the USA Today article. It would be a natural assumption that in a more dominated field, such as medicine, women would be making more money than their male counter-parts. However, a study done by the Journal of the American Medical Association states that even male nurses make $7,700 more than female nurses, even though the female-to-male nurse ratio is 10:1.
The popular Daily Show recently brought up the wage gap. The host Jon Stewart and his guest Kristen Schaal took a satirical look at the wage difference. They said that at the rate the United States is going, women will not receive equal pay to men until the year 2058. The show also speculated that people will be living on Mars and flying cars will be a common method of transportation before that time.
“Society makes it easier for men to go into higher-paying jobs and supports them more when they get them,” said Schaal.
Minji Woo • Apr 15, 2015 at 8:51 pm
Dear Catie Murphy,
I read your article “The Wage Gap Is Real” and I think definitely agree with your reasons by raising a lot of good points against the wage gap. I love your topic that considered on the wage gap between woman and man. I strongly agree that it is completely not fair at all because gender is different. The idea of pay rate systems have been built in our society like most of CEOs are male and people want to male for boss or principles in general. One additional point that I want to think about is that it is unfair that we studied same amount but we get not same amount of money. I was really into your article as a woman which make me seriously think about wage gap in our life.
Katy Emami-Yeganeh • Apr 14, 2015 at 7:00 am
I love how you wrote this article. The wage gap is an incredibly prevalent issue even today in 2015. I often get extremely heated about this issue and that women actually make 78 cents for every dollar men make. My mother has actually faced this issue as well as several cases of discrimination because she is a woman in such a male dominated field. However, there are laws that protect women against these kinds of things and make it easy for them to sue those making it so they don’t get paid the same amount. Despite these laws, in fields such as business (where my mom works) women aren’t able to sue. This is because if she did sue, she would be known in that field as a “troublemaker,” and would find great difficulty in being hired at other companies. I also watched that episode of The Daily Show. While amused by the satirical nature of Jon Stewart and Kristen Schaal’s dialogue, I was astounded to find that we as people have made so many advances. Furthermore, women still have not seen equal pay despite all the advances we’ve made elsewhere. I really don’t understand the people who say the wage gap does not exist. Some people look at the numbers and are still able to convince themselves that it’s a lie, and women really do get equal pay. However, I think this problem is apparent and it’s really great that you chose to do an article on this.