Today is Equal Pay Day, a national misnomer dedicated to the sad reality that in 2012 women in modern day America have to work an extra 3.5 months -- April 17th to be exact -- for their 2011 earnings to match what men were paid on average in 2011.
I find that there is cruel irony in having Equal Pay Day fall on Tax Day. Women and men share the responsibility of paying taxes, but there is no sharing when it comes to receiving equal pay for comparable work.
Since President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963, the gap between men and women's earnings has narrowed by less than a half-cent per year. At this rate American women will have to wait until 2062 to bring home the same salary as their male counterparts. That's a long fifty years for women who currently earn only 77 cents for every dollar a man takes home.
Now some might attribute this disparity to different career choices, but the truth is that the wage gap exists in every sector in the economy. In fact, women doctors earn 63 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts while female attorneys take home 78 cents for every dollar earned by male attorneys.
Over a lifetime of full-time work (47 years) the gap amounts to lost wages for women of between $700,000 and $2 million depending on education level. These real losses affect not only women, but they impact millions of children in households across America that depend on working moms.
According to the National Partnership for Women and Families, if the wage gap were eliminated, working women in California would have enough money for:
- 62 more weeks of food;
- Four more months of mortgage and utility payments;
- Seven more months of rent;
- 25 more months of family health insurance premiums; or
- 1,914 additional gallons of gas.
The House leadership has the power to bring a legislative solution, The Paycheck Fairness Act, to the House floor for a vote as well as an obligation to working women and their families. I am a cosponsor of this bill which would strengthen the enforcement of the 1963 Equal Pay Act while providing businesses with training and resources to ensure they are in compliance with the law.
Ending the wage gap will be an investment in our country's well-being. Equal pay for equal work is an American value that I hope Speaker Boehner will honor by bringing the Paycheck Fairness Act to the floor for a vote.
Follow Rep. Jackie Speier on Twitter: www.twitter.com/repspeier
Assumption 1: that pay is directly related to "work performance." Clearly that is not the case. Lets say there is an office of 10 salesmen and they all sold the exact same amount of product. They all will have different pay levels based personal characteristics because pay is determined on a individual basis.
Assumption 2: Women perform equal work. I think this is impossible to know. What studies have shown is that women value work flexibility over salary. If flexibility was counted as compensation the pay disparity disappears. It is not that women do not work hard, but face time in the office is usually rewarded.
Assumption 3: The false assumption that equal opportunity means equal outcomes.
Assumption 4: Among young single women- there is no pay difference between the men of equal education and experience. The disparity starts when women get in their mid30s to 40s.
Or should they be paid the same no matter what...?
Any reasonable person know that everyone do not start a job at the exact same time. Wouldn't you agree? Experience is important. Why do you think so many jobs reject applicants right out of college? Even two women working the "Exact Same Job" wouldn't be earning the same salary if one was there longer. But you know that.
"Men are not inherently better at their jobs, more experienced, or more hardworking than their female counterparts. What's the controversy over equal pay, seriously?"
I know that you didn't get all of that out of what I said. Are you just venting? The truth of the matter there is no one reason why there is a pay disparity. Discrimination happens but this is not the National Reason for the difference. In my opinion there are other contributing factors. Are you suggesting that Discrimination if the only reason?
Why insist on dragging it out? It's just pissing us off more, and frankly, you righties aren't all that appealing to us to begin with.
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Let companies hire who they want for whatever they want. If they are under pricing qualified female talent that talent will go to the competition and sooner or later the firm that is discriminating will hollow out their own performance.
Let the markets correct this minimal pay gap difference.
Kai
If they tell a friend, who tells a friend, etc, maybe we can close this gap quicker.
Why do employers overpay men anyway? What business in their right mind intentionally adds an extra 20-23% to their labor budget just to get the men?
“There is no gender gap in wages among men and women with similar family roles. Comparing the wage gap between women and men ages 35-43 who have never married and never had a child, we find a small observed gap in favor of women, which becomes insignificant after accounting for differences in skills and job and workplace characteristics.”
http://www.nber.org/papers/w11240.pdf
You Go Girl! Keep fighting for us.... We are grateful.
Let's set aside the fact that there is no such thing as two people doing the exact same work due to impossibility of "equality"
People are different, and unless you clone everyone...well... they'll probably still perform at different levels...
But let's push that to the side, and say that you really meant was: "men and women working the same position, with similar experience, and performance should make exactly the same pay"
and to that, I would say "Good job! *pat on the back* war's fought, and won. It's over. Men and women with the same experience and title, and similar proficiency Officially make the same pay...since, at least the 70's, and probably throughout our entire history.