Should Women Earn The Same Pay Essay

There is a common belief that everyone will get paid the same for doing the exact same amount of work, however that is not true. On average women get paid 77 cents out of every one dollar paid to a man, meaning a woman will need to work 68 more days to earn the same pay as a man. Pay gaps have existed since the time when women first began to join the work force. According to “Opportunities and Gender Pay Equality in New Economy Occupations” in recent years the pay gap has reduced, the women being paid only 60 cents to a man’s dollar. The unfair wages are a reality because the laws on pay equality are vague and not strictly enforced. One of the main reasons this problem became a huge issue is that unless you can compare your wages to another’s, there is no way to know if you are drawing the short straw. Once women began realizing how unfairly they were being paid, circa 1998, a term “glass ceiling frustration” came into effect. “Equal Pay: A 35 Year Perspective” mentions that women feel that higher ranking jobs are harder to reach when men are more acclaimed for making the big bucks. This frustration has led to some benefits, skyrocketing the amount of women-owned businesses. The most highly paid, least sexist field to work in currently is the IT field where women are paid on average 90.4 cents to the man’s dollar. …show more content…
Since the increase in women in the work force in the 1900s 40% of all homes have a woman bringing the majority of the income. Without a proper income, families with children of all ages may not be making enough income to supply basic needs: food, water, and/or shelter. Not only does the gap directly affect households and families, the national economy suffers from the pay inequality. Economist Heidi Hartmann estimated that if women were paid the same as men, the overall national economy would rise at least 4 percentage