Dear Mr. or Mrs. President,

 Women lose 20 billion dollars a year from the gender discrimination faced all over the United States of America. You are now the President, so what are YOU going to do to fix this problem. 

 On average, women get paid 78% of what men get paid per year. In New York, where I live, it’s 87 cents for every dollar, so on average an annual loss of $ 6,799. There are 6% more women in New York, but still men get paid more. New York has the closest range of gender pay across the United States of America.

 In Michigan, Women get paid 77.1 cents for every 1 dollar a man makes, resulting in an annual loss of $12,738. And if you don’t think that is bad, in Wyoming women get paid 64 cents to every dollar a man makes. If a man and woman worked the same( median salary) job for the same amount of days and did the exact same thing, a man would be paid $55,965 and women would be paid $36,064. How is that fair if they are contributing the exact same thing? 

 But, the worse part of all of this is if a Latin Women were to work the same job as a white man, she would be paid a whopping 54 cents to every dollar. Do you see what I mean? Gender discrimination isn’t only unfair to women. Women are the leading breadwinners for families across the United States, so not only is the wage gap depriving women, they are also depriving families and children of money. 

 Not a lot has been done to change the fate of the wage gap. President Obama signed a bill for women to sue over gender-based pay discrimination, but does that make it easier for women to get equal pay? A lot of men in particular think that the wage gap is explained by women not working as much. But, even if you add in all sick days, and hours worked, and a little extra, there is an unexplained 7%.

 I want to close the wage gap not only for me, but my generation, my children and grandchildren, and all the women who didn’t have a say. When I get older I want to be a neurosurgeon or an audiologist, and I don’t want to lose any money, when that’s really all Americans work for these days. People should be paid regardless of color, race, gender, or beliefs. After all, isn’t this the land of the free?

Sincerely,

Amber P. , 13