Tuesday marked 2011’s Equal Pay Day, which brings awareness to the pay gap between America’s men and women.† On this day in 1970, women all over the country wore buttons that said “59 cents,” and marched in public demonstrations to publicize the fact that women earned 59 cents for every dollar earned by a man.
Today, 40 years later, the gender pay gap is still very much a reality.† According to a report that was released by the White House titled “Women in America,” women earned about 75 percent of what their male counterparts earned in 2009, roughly 77 cents for every dollar earned by men.
This 18 cent increase across four decades reveals the abhorrent inequalities that women still face in the working world.† According to the National Women’s Law Center, this pay gap translates into over $10,000 less in earnings women receive than men.† Although women are now graduating from college at higher rates than men, entering the workforce at equal rates and their salaries are covering a large portion, if not all, of family expenses, they are still literally valued less than men in the workforce.
This inequality of pay for women in America has serious consequences.† The White House report revealed the most devastating effect of the pay gap: “In part because of these lower earnings and in part because unmarried and divorced women are the most likely to have responsibility for raising and supporting their children, women are more likely to be in poverty than men.”† Shamefully, this is a statistic that has remained constant since 1966.
Since the sixties, women have made significant strides towards achieving equality in all realms of society.† In many ways the gender gap has closed significantly, but it is time for women to receive the same payment as their male counterparts.† Although women hold high-ranking positions in major companies, there is still a disparity in the gender gap.† According to the Huffington Post, a woman at the senior vice president level at Wal-Mart earns $150,000 less than her male counterpart!
Equal pay for women in America is long overdue.† Like our predecessors marched and wore buttons to protest unequal compensation, women in today’s workforce, and female college students who will be entering the workforce in the next few months and years, must demand equality from our employers in order to see a significant change in our careers in earnings.
On Tuesday, to mark Equal Pay Day, Senators Barbara Mikulski and Rosa L. DeLauro reintroduced the Paycheck Fairness Act to the U.S. Senate in an attempt to fight for equality for women.† The act would require “employers to defend any gender disparities by showing that pay differences exist for legitimate, job-related reasons, remove obstacles that prevent discrimination upon employees from filing class action lawsuits and ensure that the Department of Labor utilizes the full range of its investigatory tools to uncover pay discrimination.”
Women at the collegiate level and in the workforce should support their futures by supporting this bill by calling their representative in Congress expressing their support.† In order to see a significant change in the gender gap, it is essential that women voice their opinions to Congress and fight for a real reason to celebrate Equal Pay Day.
Margaret Donnelly is an Editor in Chief for the Voice. She can be reached for comment at MDonnelly11@wooster.edu.