Dear Future President,

The fact that women earn less money for the same amount of work as men bothers me. Pay should be based on effort and accomplishment, not gender or ethnicity. Women who have experienced a divorce recently lose money that could go toward education and their families’ basic needs, but is lost in the gender pay gap. Currently, for every $1 that a man makes, a white woman makes 77 cents, African American women make 65 cents, and Hispanic/Latino women make 57 cents. For every man/boy that reads this, how would it feel to make just over 2/3 of regular payment and have women make a dollar for that same exact work?

Having a pay difference between gender and ethnicity is incorrect. If women work as much as we do, with the same quality of work, but still make less than us, it is like expecting someone with the same speed as you to finish one and a half miles before you finish one mile. Single moms have to provide for themselves and their children, and without that 33 cents lost for every $1 makes it tons harder. Losing $40,000 a year isn’t “not much”, or “they can do without” it’s sexist. Gender should not make an impact on how much others are paid.

Currently, women lose $431,000 in a life span due to the gender pay gap. The amount of money women lose due to the gender pay gap is enough to buy a house in the U.S., put 2 kids through college tuition at a public school, buy 21,900 gallons of gasoline, and feed a family of 4 for 6.4 years. The gender pay gap increases throughout a woman’s lifespan. Women 15-24 lose $4,373 annually and women 45-64 lose $15,404 a year. Teachers lose $549 a week due to the gender pay gap.

The gender pay gap affects women athletes too. The U.S. women’s national team earns only $99,000 provided they win 20 exhibition matches. On the other hand the U.S. men’s national team earns $263,320 if they win 20 exhibition matches. Even if the U.S. men’s team loses all 20 exhibition matches which is not fair because the U.S. men’s team can lose the whole thing and still make more than the women. Female golfers earn only 16.6% of what men golfers earn. Tennis is one of the only sports where women are paid more than men, women earning an average of $345,000 a year while men earn an average of $260,000 a year.

Being a female should not affect pay for equal effort as men. GDP per capita ratings for the U.S. would increase at least 6% if women and men were paid equally. Just because I am a boy does not mean that I can't try to make a difference in women’s lives too. They deserve the same as men and should not have to be cheated for our sexism. An issue that influences lives should not be overlooked.

Sincerely,

Nate R.