The Gender Wage Gap
Throughout this country, women, especially women of color, are being paid less than men for doing the same job. This very unfair practice should be abolished so that women can be paid fairly and so they have enough money to support themselves and their families.
Dear Future President,
I’m writing to you concerning the issue of women’s equality, specifically the wage gap and how women are being paid less than men for doing the same job just because they are of the opposite sex or a different color.
Imagine being paid less money for the exact same job just because you’re of the opposite sex. Well, the unfortunate truth is that this is exactly what happens to women. According to United Nations Women, in an article published in April 2016 by UN Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the average woman in the United States only makes 79 cents for every dollar a man makes. This is an even bigger concern for women of color. For every dollar a white man makes, African American women earn 60 cents, Native American women earn 59 cents, and Latinas earn 55 cents. It’s so unfair how just because someone is of the opposite sex or a different color, they get paid less even for doing the same job. Just looking at these numbers makes me feel so bad for all the women out there who get paid less and are working just as hard and still don’t have enough money to support themselves and their families.
Another example of how the wage gap affects women is that according to the National Partnership for Women and Families, if the wage gap were to be eliminated, women would get about 78 more weeks more worth of food to feed her family, 7 more months of mortgage and utility bills, 11 more months of rent, and up to 8.7 years of additional birth control. This means that if you’re a woman, it’s more likely that you won’t have enough money to support yourself and your family. To add on to that, if the Equal Pay Act were to be further strengthened, women would have more money to pay for food, rent, utility bills and other expenses to support their family, but without equal pay, women have to work more just to earn the same amount of money as men do just to support themselves and their families.
I ask you, Future President, please help as much as you can to eliminate the wage gap by further strengthening the Equal Pay Act so that American women won’t get paid less just because they are of the opposite sex or a different color.
Sincerely,
Jason Y.
Sources Used:
"America's Women and The Wage Gap." National Partnership for Women and Families. National Partnership for Women and Families, Oct. 2016. Web. 6 Nov. 2016. http://www.nationalpartnership.org/research-library/workplace-fairness/fair-pay/americas-women-and-the-wage-gap.pdf
Mlambo-Ngcuka, Phumzile. "Equal Pay Matters." UN Women. UN Women, 12 Apr. 2016. Web. 06 Nov. 2016. http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2016/4/equal-pay-matters