Today, Tuesday, April 4, 2017, is the Equal Pay Day of these beautiful United States. Equal Pay Day, established in 1996, “symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.” The placement of the event on a Tuesday is also significant; it represents how far into the next week women must work to equal what men earned in the past week.
In 2016, Equal Pay Day was selected for April 12. It’s good news that that date has come sooner this year, but white adult women still only make, on average, anywhere from 79% to 90% of what their white male counterparts do. An often overlooked fact is that minority women make even less than white women; African-American women make around 65 cents to the white man’s dollar, while Hispanic women make only 58 cents.
A common argument against the existence of the pay gap is that women simply don’t work as hard as men; however, the 46% difference in workforce participation rate between men and women in 1970 dropped to just 14% in 2015, and as of last year, women were the primary breadwinners in 40% of families. Employers also worry that women will leave the workforce once they have children, but not only do most mothers return to work, some take as little as two weeks (of usually unpaid leave) off before going back to their workplaces. Even more distressing is the fact that the United States is the only developed country not to offer paid parental leave, which could actually help keep new parents in the workforce.
The pay gap is real, and it goes beyond just male and female.
True equality will not be achieved until all women, including minorities, earn just as much as they deserve: the same as their male coworkers. True equality will not be achieved unless sexist stigma in the face of facts are removed. True equality in the workplace for men and women is predicted to be achieved as late as the 23rd century, but for the sake of our nation, we must work faster than that.
