Two weeks ago, I read an article from the Washington Post about how the day of October 26th is when many women start working for free. Due to the pay gap in the United States, women are typically working for free 10 weeks a year. This length of time depends on the difference in age, education, experience and other variables but economists still find an unexplainable gap between the salaries of men and women (G.V.). While some people do not believe in the pay gap say that women simply make different choices than men when it comes to jobs, women in different kinds of work are paid less and the choices that some women make is because of the social consequences. However, the pay gap is still apparent, and women make these choices based on social stigmas surrounding the jobs that they typically do not hold.
To close this gap, it is important to help everyone understand that this break is there. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research points out that if change continues at the same rate that is has for the past fifty years, then it will take 44 years for women to reach equal pay and this could be even long for women of color (“Pay Equity & Discrimination”). Joan Williams, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law discussed the “discrimination against hiring or promoting mothers based on the assumption she will be less committed to her job” (“50 Years After The Equal Pay Act, Gender Wage Gap Endures”). Some people argue that women choose to take more time off, or work less hours, but Williams states that this pay gap is not a matter of choice (“50 Years After the Equal Pay Act, Gender Wage Gap Endures”). In 1963, with the passage of the Equal Pay Act, there were huge socio-economic shifts for women by integrating them into the work place, but this motivation has stalled.
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was a huge step in the right direction and it established a basic labor standard that required companies to pay women and men the same when performing jobs that are equal. The lack of motivation is illustrated in the lower numbers of women in the nontraditional fields, such as transportation, construction and the STEM fields. (equal_pay_task_force_progress_report_june_2013.pdf). The United States is so close, but there is still work to be done. By changing the way women are treated in the work place and closing the pay gap, we could positively affect the economy and our society. This change comes from having conversations about what our country is still missing and what we can do to fix it.
This is from the Washington Post article:
Sources:
“50 Years After The Equal Pay Act, Gender Wage Gap Endures.” NPR.org, http://www.npr.org/2013/06/10/189280329/50-years-after-the-equal-pay-act…. Accessed 5 Nov. 2017.
equal_pay_task_force_progress_report_june_2013_new.pdf. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/equalpay/equal_…. Accessed 5 Nov. 2017.
G.V., Xaquin. “Can We Talk about the Gender Pay Gap?” Washington Post, 26 Oct. 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/business/women-pay-gap/?utm….
“Pay Equity & Discrimination.” Institute for Women’s Policy Research, https://iwpr.org/issue/employment-education-economic-change/pay-equity-d…. Accessed 5 Nov. 2017.
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