Women and Men Pay Gap

Imagine you have been working the same job for years, but you learn that your paycheck is less than your co-workers that do the same job as you. Wouldn’t that would make you upset? Well, that is what much of women experience with their male co-workers. This is the gender pay gap, and it is sexist. Because the gender pay gap is sexist, the government should put more laws in place for employers, so they pay each gender the same for equal work.

“[Changing this would] …cut poverty among working women and their families by more than half…” (IWPR) “[It would also]…add $513 billion to the national economy.”

Now, that is many of money! You may be thinking, women always taking time off to have children. That isn’t true 58% of single parent women with children under one-year-old are either working part or full time. As Erica Jong said “Women must really have equal pay for equal work, equality in works at home, and reproductive choices. Men must press for these things also. They must cease to see them as ‘women’s issues’ and learn that they are everyone’s issues- essential to survival on planet Earth” “[Did you know] …female full-time, year-round workers made only 80.5 cents for every dollar earned by men…” (IWPR)

For women of color, it is even worse. “[According to research an African American woman is paid] 61 percent of what… white men… [ That means it would take] 19 months for her to be paid what the average white man takes home in 12 months.” (Nelson)

Unfortunately, Ohio is the 14th worst in the USA with the wage gap. “[From research, white] …women are typically paid $11,477 less than men… Black women are paid more than $18,000 less and Latina women more than $19,000.” Isn’t that sad?

There are some laws in place about discrimination on employees’ wages, such as The Equal Pay Act. This law prevents gender-based wage discrimination in the USA, and it was signed by President Kennedy in 1963. This law decrees equal pay for equal work by forbidding employers from paying women and men different for doing jobs that require the same responsibilities and skills.

“[Ohio has the] Wage Discrimination Ohio Rev. Code 4111.17: No employer, including the state and political subdivisions thereof, shall discriminate in the payment of wages on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, or ancestry by paying wages to any employee at a rate less than the rate at which the employer pays wages to another employee for equal work.” (NCSL)

Sadly, Alabama and Mississippi are the only states with no laws against pay discrimination. Don’t you want to be paid equal to your co-workers?

There are many things our country can do to solve this issue. One way is making stricter laws on wage discrimination. If the employers don’t follow the rules, then they will have to face some sort of consequences. Another option is to post about it on social media. It is imperative to make the worldwide issue known, and by putting it online the problem with reach a large audience.

Finally, those solutions are most practical. They are the fastest, and most efficient ways to stop this problem, plus it will not cost a lot of money. It is important to have more laws in place that align the pay scale based on skill and experience rather than gender because currently, it is sexist. There are also a lot of companies breaking the current laws.

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