Wake Up and Smell the Wage Gap

The Wage Gap. Please tell me you know what I’m talking about. AND, please tell me you are pissed off.

The Wage Gap is the difference in what women and men make for the same work. I.e. it is not just that more men are engineers and more women are secretaries – another blog post altogether. It is talking about a male professional and a female one, within the same field and position, making entirely different salaries.

For example, my Public Relations textbook Public Relations: Strategies and Tactics updated just this year for the 9th edition shows (on page 32) that with experience of more than five years, men make an average of $124,000 while women make $85,000 doing the SAME thing!?! Sucks since this is what I want to go into :(

But it is not just PR that has this problem. Across the board, women make 77 cents to every man’s dollar. This is not right. I have spoken to some of my friends that say, oh well that is not too bad, right.

Wrong.

Nerd that I am, I like to explain this using a school analogy. Hopefully this will help paint the picture of how incredibly unfair this wage gap is. Let’s say you are in a class and your teacher returns your tests. For the exact same answers and content on that test, the teacher decides to give the boys in the class a 100 while all the girls can get – at best – a 77. Um, hello, an A verses a C. That is NOT fair!!!

In fact it is sad. I have a twin brother and we are both to graduate in May 2011. He will make more money that me because he is a boy – and because he is an engineering major but… different blog post again ;)

What truly is sad is that, in my textbook Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives also updated for the 5th edition this year, page 310 states that the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963 to ensure that women would receive equal pay for equal work. At the time, women were earning 59 cents for every man’s dollar.

Do the math: 46 years and we have gained 18 cents. That is .39 of a penny we have gained each year. Aren’t we worth more than that? Minority women make noticeably less that this.

Fortunately, President Obama has noticed. His first bill signed into law this January was the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to try to once and for all bring about equal pay for equal work. Hopefully this will help.

Until then, wake up and smell the wage gap. And do something about it! Even if it is just to talk to your friends or ask for a raise or write to your representative. YOU DESERVE IT!!!