Equal pay for equal work seems totally reasonable, right? Well, unfortunately, it’s just not that simple a key issue that the women’s movement is undertaking is the gender wage gap. The wage gap is the difference between a man and a woman’s average income salary. When looking into this issue there is one common statistic that is stated which is that women make 79¢ to every dollar a man makes but this fact doesn’t really reveal much about the matter because not every man and women have the same job. This statistic mainly applies to college educated individuals working full-time jobs but pay can vary for many reasons beyond sex like education, race, disability status, age, socioeconomic status, and experience (AAUW).

The 21% difference in pay primarily applies to white woman which are a small portion of all women, therefore neglecting to represent the various experiences of other women in the working field. The difference in pay is far more drastic for women of color with Hispanic and latina women with the lowest pay and biggest difference when compared to the pay of a white male (AAUW). Age is another big contributor to the wage gap even though many workers (male and female) will get an increase in pay as they get older and get more expertise the gap also becomes considerably larger. The disparities in salaries are prevalent in almost every field even the sports sector making women who pay the same sports as men make considerably less and by doing this the industry is encouraging gender inequality and discrimination towards women.

In order to tackle the gender wage gap, these additional findings need to be known more than just the 79¢ statistic for any substantial progress to occur. We need to obtain gender equality that applies to all women but what can we do to pave the way and abolish the wage gap? Here are a few tips that I came up with.

  • Advocate for equal pay and promotions for yourself and your lady friends
  • Talk to your employers about the Equal Pay Act
  • Tell Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act
  • If you are business owner make a commitment to provide equal pay for equal work
  • Educate others to bring awareness to the issue
  • Document any events that may suggest that you are being paid unfairly
  • File a complaint if you have been discriminated against
  • And most importantly is Know Your Worth!