Growing up, you are always taught that things aren’t handed to you and that you get what you give. You are rewarded with allowances, with toys, with presents and when you get older you expect the same rewards, right? Well if you’re a male, you are correct about that assumption. Unfortunately for us women, we are only granted 79 percent of the reward that our fellow male acquaintances are getting. By 79 percent I mean, that for every dollar a male makes, for the same exact job a female will only make $0.79. Being that it's 2016, you would think that something so simple would be figured out.
Our nation has overcome so much in terms of establishing equality for all, that this problematic situation would be resolved already. At least that’s what I think. Through history, women were always looked at as homemakers, mothers, and caretakers. They would stay home and make sure everything is clean, correct and ready for the men when they get home because men were seen as the dominant role in the family who took ownership of the money. It wasn’t until recently that women started having jobs and bringing home money for the family so automatically women are looked at as the “weaker sex” and less deserved of the proper salary. With the education provided nowadays, and the progressivism the nation is seeing, women are becoming more dominant in the world when it comes to careers and should be compensated the same way males are.
“Today, women account for 47 percent of the labor force and they hold 49.3 percent of jobs (women are more likely to hold two or more jobs and they are less likely to be self-employed).”
If women represent almost exactly half of the work force, then they should get the same compensation. Society is not overruled by men anymore, jobs are equal and so should pay.“They are the equal, if not main, breadwinner in four out of ten families. They receive more college and graduate degrees than men.” Being the so called “breadwinner” of 4 out of 10 families is a pretty big statistic. Almost half of the families throughout the nation are supported just by women who are making considerably less than men.
Remember, we are not asking for women to make more because they are the main income, we are just asking for equality, something that should be already granted. Single mothers more than all women, need this to change.Some arguments made by those who oppose, are that the wages are equal but the education is wrong or the experience is wrong or that it’s not even the same job title.
This point is extremely invalid and Glassdoor, a company who signed the equal pay pledge, did some research that I found especially interesting. "A very common misperception is that there is no gap once you compare apples and apples," said Glassdoor chief economist Andrew Chamberlain. "We are able to compare people on really detailed characteristics - the same age, the same education, the same years of experience, working in same state and their titles and employers. And even when we control for that, you see a 5.4 percent gap between men and women." Thankfully some businesses have already signed the equal pay pledge, helping this nation move forward and to satisfaction.
Some of the more popular businesses that have signed the pledge are Amazon, American airlines, Johnson & Johnson, Cisco, Gap, Go Daddy, and PepsiCo. Having American Airlines join is a big deal because pilots have one of the biggest gaps, at 16 percent. The future of America depends on us and what we do now.
“The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was the first piece of legislation President Obama signed into law. Policies that ensure fair pay for all Americans and that help businesses attract the strongest talent can not only narrow the gender pay gap, but also boost productivity and benefit our economy.” Having Obama support this ac, only makes things better and easier. He is helping the nation see that this is an important matter and that it should not be about sexism. Males although they already make more than females, should favor females making the same pay out of respect. If this matter isn’t fixed, in the future it could only get worse.
“In 1963, when the Equal Pay Act was passed, full-time working women were paid 59 cents on average for every dollar paid to men. This means it took 44 years for the wage gap to close just 18 cents.” We need to close the gap another 21 cents and I know that I don’t want to wait more than 44 years to get equal pay, I don’t want anyone to have to wait another month, another year. Now that you’ve seen the impact this problem has on the women and families of our nation, it’s time to take action and change the future.
