WRITE OR WONG?: Unfair Wages Endure

KAYIU WONG
Staff Writer

Despite all the progress that has been made in women’s rights over the past century, there is still one measure of inequality that stands out: females still earn less than males who work in the same professions.

Over 50 years ago, President John F. Kennedy passed the Equal Pay Act of 1963, declaring that it was the end of the “unconscionable practice of paying female employees less wages than male employees for the same job.” Today, however, a woman earns only 82 percent of what a man earns. It does not sound like the Equal Pay Act has exactly “paid off,” does it?

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women in America are paid just 77 to 82 cents for every dollar paid to men and personally, I find that absurd. A 23 cent difference does not sound like a lot, but it definitely adds up on a paycheck. Experts say that women earn less because it is a byproduct of their choice: choices to work fewer hours, enter lower paying majors and occupations or not negotiate for higher incomes in the first place. However, the wage gap is much more than personal choice; it is unfair and perennial. Forcing women to apply for higher-paying jobs or to work longer hours does not solve or justify why unequal pay is still intact.

Currently, the workplace-equality movement is fighting Senate to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, a comprehensive bill that strengthens the Equal Pay Act for modern times. Essentially, it is the next step forward in ending unfair wages. As a country that stresses the natural importance of freedom and equality, it is ironic that we are not stressing those same virtues to end this economic inequality.

We as women do not deserve and are tired of receiving the shorter end of the dollar bill in society.