The Pros And Cons Of Equal Pay

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The strong right that feminists are fighting for is equal pay. According to President Obama’s State of the Union Address, women are making only 77 cents to the male’s dollar. This has been the fundamental rallying point behind most feminist movements. But is this really true in today’s society? I believe that the gender wage gap is little to nonexistent because of the certain laws set forth, statistics, and the type of choices women make in their careers. First of all, when it comes to the law, there are two Civil Rights Acts that come to mind, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. According to the Equal Pay Act of 1963, no employer shall discriminate within any profession, between employees on the basis of sex by paying wages at a rate less than the rate at which the employer pays wages to employees of the opposite sex for equal work on jobs that require equal skill, effort, and responsibility. The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity According to Christina Sommers, “much of the wage gap can be explained away by simply taking account of college majors” (Atwan 322). With her use of statistics, it is true to say that women graduate college with a degree that doesn’t pay as high as men go for. For example, based off of the statistic she provides from the Georgetown University Center, the career of Petroleum Engineering is 87% male whereas the career of Counseling Psychology is 74% female. These two majors are going to put them in different positions where their starting salaries are going to be different. The average starting salary for Petroleum Engineering according to Forbes is $80,849. The average starting salary for Counseling Psychology according to Salary.com is $49,000. What this is means is not that a woman isn’t smart enough to make that career choice, she made the choice based on her

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