A Woman's Paycheck

April 9th, 2013, marks Pay Equity Day, the date that on average, a woman would make the same amount as a male does in 2012 (Sarah Glynn). This "holiday" marks sexist quality of America - females make 77% of what males make. Although it is true that some job sectors are more dominated by females and others by males (nursing, for example, is 94.2% women), 40% of the wage gap cannot be explained by hard facts. Rather, 40% of women find themselves being paid less than males for what seems to be no apparent reason.

I find that a wage gap between genders is quite discriminatory. By now, I believe all discrimination should be a thing of the past, as America has grown from racism and placed many laws to prevent it from happening. So why is it that gender discrimination is still allowed? There are 138,962,000 jobs in America, and in 55,584,000 of them, males are being paid more than females because of simple discrimination. The opposition could state that the reasoning behind this discrimination is because women "choose" to take extra days off, work less to take care of their children at home, or go into lower paying careers. However, this can be said true for men too, as they are also able to make the same decisions, and for the same hours in the same job, women are still sometimes paid less. 

One solution would be for women to unionize. However, many states prohibit this, North Carolina being one example in the teaching industry. These laws prohibit women and other workers from unionizing for equal wages, so these matters may have to be taken to the governments, including the national one, to change the laws or create laws for equal wages.

Works Cited.

Adams, Susan. "Are Women Catching Up in Pay?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 09 Apr. 2013. Web. 05 May 2013.

"On Pay Equity Day, Why Women Are Paid Less Than Men." ThinkProgress RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2013.

"Washington Area Wage Gap Differs Widely across Ethnicities." Washington Post. N.p., 14 Apr. 2013. Web. 05 May 2013.