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Kayla Wilson

Mrs. Kenly

British Literature

27 April 2018

Why are men still getting paid more than women in today's society?

In America, a country that claims to be the land of equality and equal opportunity it's crazy

that there is still a wage gap. Think about it is 2018, but there is still a wage gap. Let's be clear it

is not all a surprise to women. Women are often overworked, underappreciated, judged,

discriminated against, disrespected, harassed and looked down on as inferior to men. This

especially true in the workforce. Women will face challenges just because of their gender. For

example, this past presidential election was the first time a woman, Hillary Clinton, has won the

presidential nomination. It is clear that women are stepping up. Women exceed men in

education. More women graduated from high school and college than men. With that being said

there are plenty of women who are more educated than their spouses.

While men may be the head of the household, women are the neck, backbone, and

foundation. You can not hold up your head without support. However, it is essential for women

to know they are more than just help, and their salary should reflect that. God created men and

women to be equals. If a man and a woman are working the same job, their pay should show it.

The wage gap is a form of discrimination.

The stereotype of men being the heads of households is no longer entirely correct. Women are

leaders too. Lots of women are now the heads of their households. Women are not only more

likely to be the primary caregivers in a family, but they are increasingly becoming the primary

earners, too. That's right single mothers are and have been doing it on their own for some time
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now. The livelihood of a woman is more expensive than that of a man. Closing the wage gap will

not only benefit women but the people they support such as children and their families. With that

being said you better believe that equal pay will not only decrease poverty, but it will better the

livelihood of some many people. Closing the wage gap won’t be easy, because of barriers. On

the radio in the morning, it was reported that a woman got fired for asking her male counter his

salary. After finding out his salary, she complained and asked for a higher salary. The reporters

said she should have asked for a higher salary without revealing she disgust the matter with a co-

worker. Saying there is a better way to go about it. Now let's take a closer look at the wage gap,

and what can be done to close it.

We all know women make less than men but most probably are unaware that this is even

more so true for African American and Latina women. For every dollar a white man makes

African American women earn about 60 cents and Latina women only make about 55 cents. This

shows that the wage gap is not just between the genders, but there is also a gap between races of

people. Carolyn Maloney is a Democrat on Congress's Joint Economic Committee, and

according to her studies, a women's median earnings are now about $10,800 less per year than

men's. The difference in salary adds up over the years. The wage gap goes up to more than a

$400,000 hole over the course of 40-year employment. (Arquette)

The wage gap has decreased since the Equal Pay Act first became law in 1963. Back then

women made only 59 cents on the dollar compared to men. “The iconic family of dad at work

and mom at home with two kids is no longer the norm.” 75 percent of all working-age women

have a job or is looking for one, that includes 66.69 percent of women with children under 18.

“40 percent of employed, married women are their household's prime wage earner. Since women

make less, women will wait longer than men to buy a house and take longer to pay off student
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loans. Job segregation and discrimination can lead women to lower-paying work in general.” It

can also lead to most women working in a care or female-dominated fields. Women are less

likely to have health insurance, paid vacations or sick leave. Not to mention that we live in the

only advanced country in the world that doesn't guarantee paid maternity leave for employed

mothers, which is another way women loses money. Not only that, but bonuses aren’t often off

the table for most women. (Arquette)

Equal pay for equal work seems like a no-brainer, but that is not the reality we face in today's

society. This is such a common democratic concept, that seems hard for anyone to question its

fairness. The equal pay for equal work is a continuous outcry especially with working women in

America. With America supposedly being the land of the free and home of the brave, in other

words, a place said to be of equality for all, it seems like America is false advertising it’s society.

The proof is in the hard facts and statistic, so here are some. According to the Center for

American Progress (CAP) statistics, women who work full-time year-round continue to earn

only about 77 percent of what men earn. The gender wage gap gets larger with age and builds up

over time. “For women at the beginning of their careers - between the ages of 25 to 29 - the

annual wage gap is about $I,700.”But for women in the final five years of their careers before

retirement, the wage gap grows lowers to$14,352. Over a 40-year career, the average woman

will lose about $4.31,000 to the gender wage gap. (Cooper)

According to the U.S. Department of labor women make up almost half of U.S. workforce.

Since about half the workers in the U.S. are women, that means half the workers in the U.S. are

not being paid fairly. More than 39 percent of women work in occupations where women make

up at least 75 percent of the workforce. Women own about 10 million businesses, which account

for $1.4 trillion in receipts., but that is not all. “Trends in women’s employment have evolved
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over time. Women’s participation in the U.S. labor force has increased since World War 2I: from

32.7 percent in 1948 to 56.8 percent in 2016.” (DeWolf)

The amount of women with college degrees in the workforce has almost quadrupled since

1970. More than 40 percent of women in the labor force had college degrees in 2016, compared

to the 11 percent in 1970. Women are even more likely to earn bachelor's degree by the age 29.

34 percent of women earn bachelor’s degrees by age 29 compared to 26 percent of men.

Working moms are now the norm. 75 percent of mothers with children under age 18 are in the

workforce. Over 755 of them are employed full-time. “Mothers are the primary or sole earners

for 40 percent of households with children under 18 today, compared with 11 percent in 1960.”

(DeWolf)

Pay secrecy is a workplace policy that is sometimes in handbooks, and it states that prohibits

employees from talking about their salaries in the workplaces to each other. In some cases, the

policy is implied, and managers inform employees not to talk about their salaries. This explains

why women most times don’t know they are being paid less because they are not able to talk

about how much their male counterparts are making. “The National Labor Relations Act, also

known as the "Wagner Act," became law in 1935. It's the basis for employees' rights to talk

about wages with their coworkers.” Under the National Labor Relations Act, private-sector

employees have the right to engage in "concerted activities for collective bargaining or other

mutual aid or protection." Private-sector means the part of the national economy that is not under

government control. The act means that you and your co-workers get to talk together about

things that matter to you at work. Compensation is one of those things you can talk about. The

National Labor Relations Board, says Estlund, "has long held that these pay secrecy policies that

many employers have in writing violate the National Labor Relations Act."Even if an employee
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signs a nondisclosure agreement with an employer, Estlund says, the employee would still be

protected when talking about salary."You can't just declare information about people's pay to be

confidential information that can't be discussed," she says. (Dreisbach)

Employees may be scared to talk about their salaries still, but most do not know that

employers caught violating the law will face repercussions. The National Labor Relations Board

can order employers to provide back pay to wrongfully terminated employees and to offer former

employees their old jobs back. The president's executive order provides a penalty that goes

beyond the labor board's punishments. Companies that do work for the federal government and

retaliate against employees for talking about pay could now lose a federal contract and a lot of

money. A 2011 survey from the Institute for Women's Policy Research found that about half of

workers "report that the discussion of wage and salary information is either discouraged or

prohibited and could lead to punishment."A survey of private-sector employers from 2001 found

that more than one-third had specific policies that banned workers from talking about their

compensation with their co-workers. (Dreisbach)

The Equal Pay Act was among the first federal laws in American history to address gender

discrimination. In signing it into law on June 10, 1963, Kennedy praised it as a “significant step

forward,” but acknowledged that “much remains to be done to achieve full equality of economic

opportunity” for women. 55 years later and much remains to be done. Among other things,

Kennedy stressed the need for child day care centers to support working mothers. Following the

passage of the Equal Pay Act, several other laws were enacted with the aim of reducing

employment discrimination. “Perhaps the most important was Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of

1964, which banned employers from discriminating by race, color, religion, sex, or national

origin.” (EQUAL PAY ACT)

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“The Educational Amendment of 1972, meanwhile, expanded the reach of the Equal Pay Act

to include white-collar executive, professional and administrative jobs—categories that had been

exempted under the original law.” Other important gender equity employment laws include the

Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, which strengthened protections for pregnant workers;

and 2009’s Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which reduced time restrictions on wage discrimination

complaints. Under the regulations of the Equal Pay Act, employees who believe they are being

discriminated against can either file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission or directly sue their employer in court. Combined with increased education and

career opportunities for women, these regulations have been credited with helping to narrow the

gender wage gap in the United States. Estimates vary, but according to a study from the Bureau

of Labor Statistics, full-time women workers in 2016 were paid 82 cents for every dollar men

earned. (EQUAL PAY ACT)

April 4, 2017 is Equal Pay Day, it was started by the Nation Committee of Pay Equality in

1960 to highlight the gap between men and women's wages. That means women had to work

from that start of April 4, 2016 to April 4, 2017 to make as much as their male counterparts.

Women make about 20% less than men. Women have to work 50 years to make what a men

makes in 40 years. That means that women have to work 10 plus years to close the wage gap. 20-

year-old women stands to lose $418,000 over a 40 year career. (Equal Pay Day Highlights)

Black women lose over 800,000 over the course of a 40 year career. Latinas women in 47

states must work to age 85 or later to close the gap. Native women in 26 states must work to age

85 or later to close the gap. Black women in 22 states must work to age 85 or later to close the

gap. As you can see the wage gap differs across the country from state to state, just like the

minimum wage differs. One of the reason the wage gap has persisted is because employers are
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forbidden from talking to each other about their pay. It's hard to know your not being pay equal

when you don’t know your male counterparts pay. They can even be fired for doing so. This

information is according to the National Women’s Law Center and U.S. Census Bureau. (Equal

Pay Day Highlights)

“President Obama committed to equal pay for women when he signed the Lilly Ledbetter

Fair Pay Act. The bill directly addressed Ledbetter v. Goodyear, a U.S. Supreme Court decision

that basically says employers had been paying unfairly for long enough to make it legal.” This

law was the very first to receive Obama's signature to changed that. It restored the long-standing

interpretation of civil rights laws, allowing employees to challenge any and every discriminatory

paycheck. (Ledbetter)

Women make up about half the U.S. workforce. They surpass men in the number of college

and graduate degrees earned, according to National women’s law center. On average, women

make less than men in almost every occupation for which there is sufficient wage data. The

median wage for full-time male workers in 2014 was $50,383, as compared to $39,621 for

women, according to NWLC. “In Georgia, a woman makes 81 cents for every dollar a man

makes.” In 2014 in Georgia, the median wage for a man was $44,632 compared the median wage

salary of $36,468 for women, which means the wage gap was $8,164. The career wage gap

during that time was $326,200, for a 40-year career. According to research from Institute for

Family Studies (IFS), a record of 25.3% of husbands is now married to wives who are more

educated than them. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 56 percent of

college students are women. That means there are 2.2 million fewer men than women enrolled in

college. (MAP)
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Tracee Ellis Ross is setting the record straight about speculation over her black-ish salary.

“There has been a lot of conversation and speculation the last few days regarding my black-ish

salary. I was in renegotiation like many actors find themselves in during the fourth season of a

successful show,”. “Ellis Ross wrote that statement on Twitter, addressing a report from The

Hollywood Reporter that claimed she was paid considerably less money than her co-star

Anthony Anderson — who also serves as an executive producer for the show.” The report also

claimed she was considering appearing in fewer episodes if she could not renegotiate her salary.

Although Ellis Ross did not explicitly confirm the pay gap between her and Anderson’s salaries,

she did go on to say she wanted to be paid equally. She said, “I wanted to be compensated in a

way that matches my contribution to a show that I love for many reasons, including the

opportunity it allows me to reshape what it is to be a fully realized black woman on TV.” This

shows that even famous and respected women are affected by the wage gap, and they are taking

action. (Pasquini)

The 45-year-old actress concluded her message by saying that even though “having had my

renegotiation become a public conversation was awkward,” she was “grateful for the outpouring

of support.” “I’m truly thankful that important conversations are taking place about fighting for

women’s worth and equality, and tightening the pay gap in every industry,” she wrote. Ross has

been a very vocal supporter of the Time’s Up movement. On the Golden Globes red carpet, Ross

explained her decision to wear all black. She said, “I wear black today as a ‘we’ not as an ‘I,’ as

a celebration of our collective power as women, as an embodiment of sisterhood, solidarity and

the work being done to create structural change.” “We wear black for equity, parity, and

inclusion across all industries,” she added. “We wear black to join with the voices of ALL

women, especially women of color, LGBTQX women, disabled women and all other women
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who have been disproportionately affected by sexual violence. TIMES UP on discrimination,

harassment, and abuse.” (Pasquini)

Almost a century after winning the right to vote, we still have to address the economic

Imbalance women face achieving full equality. In today’s society, women play a large part in the

economy. Women make up half the workforce, and they purchase about 80% of consumer

goods. Women earn 79 cents for every dollar earned by men. To get to women's pay equality, we

must first deal with income and wealth inequality. Measuring wealth creates a better image of a

person’s financial standings than measuring wages because wealth is assets minus debts. (Reich

and McCulloch)

Women are more likely to work part-time because they're caring for family members, which

limits their access to employee benefits that help turn income into wealth through 401k or other

retirement savings programs. “To address these inequities, we need a broad menu of solutions

that address income and wealth.” To help increase women's income, we need to push for pay

fairness, affordable childcare, and paid family leave. To increase wealth, we need to change

retirement savings plans and tax benefits.“Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit and the

Child Tax Credit should be key priorities to make the tax code work for women.” (Reich and

McCulloch)

“Workplace discrimination occurs when a member of a protected class-such as women,

minorities or people with disabilities are discriminated against. Types of discriminatory practices

include, but are not limited to, bias in hiring, firing, promotion, compensation and various types

of harassment, including sexual harassment.” Many federal laws prohibit discrimination in the

work environment, and many states also have laws to prevent unfair treatment of employees.

Title VII (7) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which serves as the basis of anti-discrimination
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employment legislation, prohibits employers from engaging in workplace discrimination based

on race, skin color, gender, religious beliefs, or national origin. One issue of debate is whether or

not existing laws against workplace discrimination should be strengthened. Some argue that

existing laws are unsuccessful in protecting all employees, while opponents say that the costs

imposed by strengthening laws outweigh any benefits. To those people, I say anything great

there is a cost. (Should laws that protect)

In late August, the White House neglected Obama-era rule meant to lessen the wage gap by

requiring large companies to report what they pay employees by gender and race. This seems

more like regression when we need to be progressing on the matter. However, there are other

progressing being made. “A Forbes review conducted in 2017 found that 72 large, publicly

traded companies, including Intel, Amazon, Delta, and Salesforce, have committed to conduct

pay equity analyses, and have established a policy to drive diversity and equal opportunity.”

Companies and shareholders are increasingly seeing pay equity as a business necessity, one that

drives access to diverse talent, innovation and growth. “A rise in pressure from shareholders

along with strong state and, in some countries, national regulations (such as those imposed in

Iceland) have also been effective in compelling companies to identify and correct pay

disparities.” (Smith and McElhaney)

Survey data

A survey was conducted on seniors at Mays high school’s stance on equal pay between men

and women. When asked whether their mom or dad was the main financial provider in their

household 69.23 percent said their mom is the main provider. The other 30.77 percent said their

father is the main provider. This proves that men are no longer the main provides for majority

households, which not only proves the iconic family stereotypes wrong, but it gives more
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ammunition to close the wage gap. When asked in today's society if one thinks men or women

are the main providers, 73.08 percent said women are, and 26.92 percent said men are. This

means that the majority were aware that women are the main providers, despite the general past

belief that men are the main providers or are suppose to be the main providers. When asked in

American where it is said to be the land of equity and equal opportunity is one surprised man is

still getting paid more than women, only 19.23 percent said yes. The other 80.77 percent were

not surprised. They must know that although America claims to be the land of equal opportunity

for the most part that is not the case.

Opinion questions were also asked such as does one thinks the wage gap which is closed?

92.31 percent said yes, the other 7.69 percent said no. That means that the majority is for equal

pay by far. When asked if one feels that the current unequal pay status has affected them and

their household positively, negatively or not at all, surprisingly 53.85 percent said not at all. 7.69

percent said positively, and 38.46 percent said negatively. Most likely the 7.69 percent who said

the wage gap positively affected them, have fathers that are their main providers. The 38.46

percent who said that the wage gap negatively affected them have mothers that are their main

providers. Lastly, the 53.85 percent who said they were unaffected are probably unaware of how

the wage gap affected them.

When asked if they think that unequal pay between men and women is a form of sexism

80.77 percent said yes, while the other 19.23 percent said no. When asked who does one belief is

the more educated gender 15.38 percent said males, and 84.62 percent said females. This means

that the majority were aware that women are more educated. When asked if one thinks that equal

pay will positively impact the economy 88.46 percent said yes, and 11.54 percent said no. When

asked if one thinks that the current pat situation is fair 23.08 percent said yes, and 76.92 percent
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said no. Being bias to one's gender in the matter means one thinks that their gender should be

paid more, 57.69 percent said yes, and 42.31 percent said no.

Work cited

Arquette, Patricia. "Sure, Equal Pay Day is about what's in Women's Paychecks. it's also.."

Washington Post - Blogs, 12 Apr 2016, pp. N/a SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

Cooper, Mary A. "Wage Gap for Women: Both Sides of the Story." Hispanic Outlook in Higher

Education, Jan, 2014, pp. 14, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

DeWolf, Mark. "12 Stats About Working Women." , 1 Mar. 2017. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.

Dreisbach, Tom. "'Pay Secrecy' Policies At Work: Often Illegal, And Misunderstood." National

Public Radio , edited by Tom Dreisbach, Tom Dreisbach , 13 Apr. 2014. Accessed 26

Apr. 2018. Path:

https://www.npr.org/2014/04/13/301989789/pay-secrecy-policies-at-work-often-illegal-a

nd-misunderstood.

"EQUAL PAY ACT." History.com, History.com , https://www.history.com/topics/equal-pay-act.

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Accessed 26 Apr. 2018.

Equal Pay Day highlights wage gap between men and women. Maya Raghu, CBSN New York ,

2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7HKJprB0UM . Accessed 25 Apr. 2018.

Ledbetter, Lilly. "One Law Isn't enough to Ensure Fair Pay." Washington Post, 19 Jan, 2014, pp.

B.3, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

"MAP: It's Equal Pay Day! How Big Is The Gender Wage Gap Where You Live?." kqed.org,

PBS. Accessed 17 Apr. 2018

Pasquini, Maria. "Tracee Ellis Ross Speaks Out About Reported black-ish Pay Gap with

Anthony Anderson." People.com , People.com , 21 Jan. 2018. Accessed 26 Apr. 2018.

Path: http://people.com/tv/tracee-ellis-ross-black-ish-pay-disparity/.

Reich, Robert, and Heather McCulloch. "Fixing the Gap in Women's Wealth." Los Angeles

Times, 25 Aug, 2017, pp. A.15, SIRS Issues Researcher, https://sks.sirs.com.

"Should laws that protect against workplace discrimination be strengthened?." sks.sirs.com.

Accessed 17 Apr. 2018.

Smith, Genevieve, and Kellie McElhaney. "Understanding “Equal Pay” and How to Achieve It."

StandfordSocialinnovationreview, 25 Oct. 2017, https://ssir.org. Accessed 24 Apr. 2018.

Wilson, Kayla. “Your Stance on Equal Pay on Between Men and Women.” Survey 9 Apr. 2018.