Why Do Women Receive Equal Pay For Women

Ananya Padmanabhan
11/30/17
Research Report #1
Equal Pay for Women
Women have not received equal pay since 1869!! Ever since John F. Kennedy signed the equal pay act it has been illegal to pay men and women working in the same job equal pay. However even after 55 years women still do not receive equal pay. This article talks about the history of pay for women in the U.S, Facts and statistics on how much a women makes, why women receiving unequal pay is a problem, and how we can solve this problem.

History of pay for women in the USA
The history of equal pay for women begins in 1869 when a letter was written to the editor of the New York Time. The letter asked why female government representatives were paid less than their male peers.

“Very few persons deny the justice of the principle that equal work should command equal pay without regard to the sex of the laborer,” the author of the letter wrote. “But it is one thing to acknowledge the right of a principle and quite another to practice it.” The author of the letter also said that men were being paid 2 times the amount women were “Many of these women are now performing the same grade of work at $900 per annum for which men receive $1800. Most of them, too, have families to support; being nearly all either widow or orphans made by the war.” Later that year a decision was made by the house of representatives to make sure that female government employees got paid the same as men. However when the law passed in 1870 it was dulled down.

Another very important part in the history of pay for women is that by 1911 a lot of progress had been made teachers were started receiving equal pay as well. Finally in 1963 John F. Kennedy passed the equal pay act which stated that giving men and women unequal pay was now illegal in the US.

Facts and Statistics around how much a women makes

Women all around the world get paid less than men! In fact despite all the effort to get equal pay men (especially white men) get paid a lot more. For example in America women still earn 79 cents for every dollar a man makes.According to a report released by the senate joint committee- A women's annual medians earnings compared to men are 10,800$ less! In different states women get paid differently. For example in California women get paid 10-15% less than men and in Wyoming women get paid 31-35% less than men.

Immigrants get paid even less. For instance Asians get paid 16% less than men and Hispanics get paid 45% less than men!! Black and Hispanic women are affected the mst form the wage gap as they get paid the least.

Why women not receiving equal pay is a problem

There are lots of problems with women not receiving equal pay. First, It hurts there moral and brings them down. It prevents them from rising in their career and reaching the top because they do not think they can do it. I mean have you ever seen a woman president? Second they wouldn’t have enough money to support their familys as 40% of children have single mothers and that would hurt women in low wage jobs the most. Less money can also lead to poverty as they might not have enough money to buy a house. Plus when they are old and they retire they would not have enough savings to get medical support and such.

What people are doing to fix this problem

Acording to the NWLC some things we can do to fix this problem are strengthen our equal pay laws, allow women to go to better paying jobs,and lift up the wages of women in low-wage jobs so they single mothers will also be able to support they kids.