Cracking the Glass Ceiling - Unequal Pay

As much as we've accomplished over the past fifty years as a society - increased civil rights protections, women joining the workforce, national prosperity - some things still have a long way to go. One of these is the treatment of women in the workplace. Even though most people are now able to admit that a woman can do a job just as well as a man can, women are still paid less for the same job and still face the specter of sexual harassment on a daily basis. It's high time that we work together to make this history.

Unequal Pay

While the so-called gender wage gap was thought for a number of years to be shrinking, recent US Census data begs to differ. In 2004, women on average made 75.5 cents for every dollar earned by men. While the average annual salary for men stayed the same over the years preceding this announcement, the annual salary for women actually shrank.

But it gets worse. Fresh out of college, women can be expected to make only 80% of what comparable men make. However, it gets even worse over time. After ten years of being out of college, women make only 69% of what their male counterparts make. Why is this? After all, ten years of experience should narrow the pay gap, if anything.

The truly worrisome data is that, even after the figures have been adjusted for all the various data - work hours, children, occupation, etc. - there is still an inexplicable 25% pay gap. Researchers cannot find a good reason for this phenomenon. But the sad truth that these findings point to is obvious: women are not going to be able to overcome the disheartening pay gap through education alone.

There have been efforts in the past to correct this pay discrepancy through legal intervention, notably the famous Equal Rights Amendment, originally written in 1923 and proposed every year since then. It came close to being ratified in 1982, but failed. It has been re-introduced by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY). The major purpose of the proposed amendment would be to prevent discrimination on account of sex. And while the Equal Pay Act of 1963 makes it illegal to pay men and women different wages for the same job, the pay gap continues to this day.

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