Gender Wage Gap In America

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Stemming from continued, incessant inequality, articulated and fought against with biting acrimony throughout the women’s suffrage movement, supposedly ended with the signing of the Equal Pay Act by President John F. Kennedy but has persisted into the 23rd century with very gradual progress: the gender wage gap. The gender wage gap, or the disparity in income between men and women doing the same work, has not only remained acceptable but enforced throughout all American history and although maybe less apparent, is still prevalent today. The U.S. Census Bureau concludes that full-time, year-round working women earned, on average, 84% of what their male counterparts earned in 2022. Furthermore, the effects of the wage gap upon women do not end …show more content…
However, the issue erupted during the 1960s with President John F. Kennedy’s signing of the Equal Pay Act, which prohibited employers from paying male and female workers different wages for “.jobs the performance of which requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and which are performed under similar working conditions.” The bill did allow for exceptions based upon merit and seniority, for example. The bill seemingly allows leeway for continued disparity due to its vagueness and numerous exceptions. Continued disparity did occur, which was addressed in the conceptualization and movement of comparable worth. Proponents of this cause argued that many women and people of color were still systematically forced into jobs that have been historically undervalued and underpaid, jobs like nurses, teachers, clerical professions, and service workers. Comparable worth made little progress on the federal level, but it was signed into law in some states before eventually ceasing to exist. Nothing has occurred legislatively from the 21st century to present regarding the wage gap, and to this day it has yet to close. For some perspective and juxtaposition, in the 1960s, women earned 60 cents for every dollar made by men, in the 1990s, 70 cents, and in 2024, 84 cents. Public acknowledgment has seemingly …show more content…
Not only is the gender pay gap still existent, but it has remained relatively stable over the past 20 years. From 2002 to 2022, women’s median hourly earnings as a percent of men’s median hourly earnings have only increased a meager 2%, from 80% to 82%, and increasing another 2% moving into 2024, making it 84%. Clearly, progress is moving very dilatorily, and we cannot keep pace with the decreasing affordability and accessibility of the United States economy, especially without the increase in general salaries throughout the nation. Cumulatively, employed women in the United States lose just over $1.6 trillion yearly on account of the gender wage gap. Encapsulating the effects of the gender wage gap on women today, with this money a working woman in the United States would have enough money for approximately thirteen additional months of childcare, more than one year of tuition and fees for a four-year public university, nearly sixty-four weeks of food (which is more than one year’s worth), nearly seven months of mortgage and utilities payments, almost nine months of rent, and last but not least, enough money to pay off student
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