Tuesday, April 4th was National Equal Pay Day. Equal Pay Day is meant to draw attention to the gender pay gap that is still persistent in the United States. According to CNN, women would have to work from January 2016 to April 2017 in order to make what the average man made in 2016. Despite it being 2017, women still only make 78 cents to every man’s dollar. This means that women make over 10,000 dollars less than a man every year, and lose out on over 400,000 dollars throughout a 40-year career. The gap is even larger for women of color. Black women make 63 cents to every man’s dollar, and Hispanic women make only 54 cents. Many people have attempted to attribute the gender pay gap between men and women to women taking lower paying jobs than men. However, this is simply not the case. Various studies have proven that women in the workplace earn a smaller salary than men for doing the same amount of work. According to CNN Money, the gender pay gap is even larger among higher-paying jobs, such as those in Silicon Valley or the financial sector.
Little progress has been made in combating the gender pay gap. In 2009, Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which prohibits gender discrimination in the workplace and allows women to fight back against gender discrimination. However, in 2014, Republicans in Congress blocked a bill aimed at reducing the pay gap between men and women. It does not appear that the current administration is going to be making an effort to close the gender pay gap anytime soon. On March 27 President Donald Trump rolled back the measures put in place by Obama to protect women in the workplace. It is clear feminism is more important than ever. As women, we must fight to have equal pay and ensure that our rights are recognized.