Dear President-elect,

Congratulations on becoming President of the United States. As a citizen of the US, I find it important that as a country we work together, to help each other. We are a country of different nationalities and backgrounds, and we work together. No one in our country should have to face any issues alone. We are a country of immigrants and different cultures all living in the same country, therefore we must work together. And there’s an issue this country must address together: equal pay for equal jobs.

As a high school student, I have started thinking about my future, college, and jobs. Although there’s more to it than that. As children, we are told to follow our dreams, only to find that when we try to pursue our dreams we find ourselves limited by gender, race, religion, etc. No one should have to worry about this, whether they’re adults applying for jobs or young adults trying to plan their future. As a woman, if I wanted to become a teacher, I would have to become the principal to get paid the same as amount if that teacher were a man.

From hearing people say “follow your dreams” all the time, some might get the impression that everyone deserves equal pay no matter what they do. Although it’s a lot simpler than that. When everyone keeps trying to push equal pay, they are really just trying to ensure that no matter who you are, you get paid the same amount for the same job as anyone else. According to American Association of University Women, in the US, women get paid around 80% of what men are paid for doing the exact same job.

According to the National Partnership for women & family, nearly 58% of women in the United States identify equal pay as one of the most important issues. Some might say, why don’t women just go for higher paying jobs? Well it’s more complicated than that. According to the National Women’s Law Center, only 4.8% of CEOs are women, meaning the rest of those CEOs are men (95.2%). Which can’t be fair at all. Men will be likely to hire other men like them. This was how politics started out, with white men only hiring other white men, and people of color and women didn’t get a fair chance. We always reflect our history, so it’s not going to change unless we change it.

Our history doesn’t have to reflect us, we can change the way we act. We can enforce those laws that everyone ignores. We can make the pay equal, and maybe even have a woman’s face on a dollar bill for a change. We just need to do it. As our country’s leader, I hope you will ensure the issues and concerns of all of your citizens, under and over 18.

Sincerely,

A future voter of our country