The Gender Wage Gap

What is the Real Impact of the Gender Wage Gap?
$10,786. That is how much more money women would have this year if the gender wage gap was closed. The gender wage gap has been around since women first started working, and even then they were put down for not being at home and taking care of children. Since women were put down so often for not staying at home, they were getting paid less, being considered less than equals to their male counterparts. Now there is much to consider with the gap and the history of it. There are also laws that have been instated to ensure women get paid equally. However there are many people who believe there is no more wage gap, and discrimination is not a key aspect of this problem. The topic of the gender …show more content…
Opponents and myths are huge on this topic, for it is usually heavily debated for both sides. Opponents claim that the wage gap is a myth, and that there is a legitimate difference in the work ethic for both genders, and it has nothing to do with discrimination. However, decades of research shows a gap in pay, even after the facts of the kind of work performed, and qualifications were reached there still was a factor left of why they weren’t getting equal pay (“Myth Busting”). Throughout the decade, there is evidence proving that it exists, for it’s a simple fact and no matter the amount of difference, it’s still not a satisfying thought. Advocates say women have to work 40 more days more rather than that of their male counterpart to earn what they have earned(“On Equal Pay”). Furthermore, women earn 89% of what their male counterparts earn, albeit in the younger generation it is only 93%, but it is still there(“On Equal Pay”). Even though some women work just as hard as their male counterparts, they still are being paid less than men. Now, oppositionists state that discrimination has nothing to do with it. However, it has everything to do with discrimination, back in the 1960’s, there was a lot of the civil rights movement, and with it a push for black women’s rights and empowering them. They created the Equal Pay Act to put into place was to make sure there …show more content…
Many people believe that since this is an age that women are working alongside with men that they are getting paid the same as their male counterparts, but that is not always true for the working women. With a substantial amount of evidence there is much to see that women are still being paid slightly less, which can greatly affect their income, and therefore affect what they can and cannot afford. Women are finding jobs that just happen to pay less, or they have to take time off to take care of children is another reason. However, this is not always a reasonable thing to ask of a low income parent who needs to work to pay for their bills and their child's bills, since they work to feed themselves and their child. Women would have to take time off of work, single or not, to take care of a child and herself while getting paid less than their male counterparts, just because of the fact that they need to take care of a child. Furthermore, when it is all added up, women could have earned over the difference of a few cents can add up over the years. Remember: $10,786 is the amount of money women could have added to their accounts this year, if there was no wage gap in the first

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Gender Wage Gap