Dear Next President,

Hello, congratulations on winning this election. You went through a lot and did a lot of hard work to get here, so, I hope that you can make great things happen now that you have all of this power over our country. So, given the fact that you are now in charge, I want to talk to you about how women not receiving equal pay is upsetting women and people all around the world.

For years and years, men have been getting paid more than women for doing the exact same job. I’m writing to you so that we can change the fact that us women, are not getting equal pay to men. I, myself, as a latina and as a woman, will be starting to work very soon and just like most other girls and women, I am upset about the fact that I will not be getting paid as much as my male co workers. We are not upset because we just want to make more money, we are upset because we want to be treated like equals.

This issue has been going on for decades and it’s unbelievable that this is still happening. According to bustle.com, things have slightly improved since 1963, when women were making even less money than men than they are now and before President Kennedy enacted the Equal Pay Act. Women back in the 60s were only making about 59 cents for every dollar men were making. A year after that, in 1964, the Civil Rights Act made it illegal to discriminate by gender, skin color, religion, disability, or age. Since then, there haven’t really been any drastic changes in the amount women are paid. This is still an issue and people are upset. Women are upset.

Today, women are only paid 80 cents for every dollar a man makes, says iwpr.org. Twenty cents may not seem like that much of a difference to some people, but isn’t that the point? Why do men have to be paid 20 cents more than us? I mean, it obviously makes a difference but what’s the point? Are men just that much better than us at doing the same job that they need to be paid 20 cents more? Another thing that is messed up about the amount we get paid is that race actually makes a difference too. So, not only are women of color getting paid less because of their gender, but they are making less because of something as stupid as the color of their skin. Here’s a crazy fact: iwpr.org says that when and IF women ever receive equal pay, it most likely will not happen until the year 2059.

My plan to fix this issue is simple. We could fix this problem by simply giving women equal pay for doing the exact same job as men, and also for putting in just as much hard work as men.

It is time to make a change and treat women as equals. Our country is really messed up for letting something as irrelevant as your gender decide how much money you are going to make compared to the amount someone of the opposite sex is making. Not only is America messed up for being gender biased, but for being racist too. Women of color should receive the same pay as men and caucasian women.

Thank You,

Rio Hernandez, 10th Grade

Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota