There's a big issue in our country that we need to be talking about. Something that shouldn't still be an issue anymore. Something that could very simply be changed and have a huge impact on our economy.

The issue? That women STILL earn less than men.

In 2015, women earned a full 20% less per paycheck than men. This is not just for one occupation, but for virtually every occupation out there. If the trend of increasing women's pay continues as it has in the past, it will take another 44 years for women to finally reach pay equality. In fact, women have not seen a significant increase in annual pay since 2007.

The figure above is from the publication The Gender Wage Gap: 2015; Annual Earnings Differences by Gender, Race, and Ethnicity. As shown by this figure, women's pay, both in terms of weekly earnings and annual earnings - are significantly lower than men's. To show you just how low they actually are, the authors of the publications cited the actual amounts.

In the year 1960, women made an average of $22,819 per anum, whereas men made $37,608. This means that women only mad 60.7% of what men did. By 1970, the percentage had actually decreased to 59.4%. Unfortunately, by 1975, the value had only decreased further, ending up at 58.8%. This information is shown in the following graph:

Thankfully, by 1980, the pay per annum had almost gotten back up to the value of 1960, coming in at 60.2%. Now, in 2015, when more people have more civil liberties than ever - women barely make 80% of what men make (to see the chart in its entirety, please click on the link associated with the title of the publication).

Unfortunately, these values are just for women overall. The values become even more depressing for women of other races. The following graph shows these negative values:

African Americans seem to be doing the best, making 88.1% of what other African Americans make. The worst ethnic group happens to be Caucasians, who only make 75.3% of what their male counterparts do. However, even with the highest percentage being 88.1%, why is this number not 100%? What could possibly be keeping women from earning the same amount as males?

It keeps getting worse. Why? Because when you expand the graph, African Americans and Hispanic or Latinos make a significant amount less per anum when compared to white males:

Yes, I do recognize that this means some ethnicities overall make less money that Caucasians. It doesn't change the fact that women still make less overall than men do both weekly and yearly.

So why hasn't anything been done to fix this issue?

It's time to give women equal pay. This form of sexism isn't something that we should keep ignoring.

Women, fight for your right to equal pay.