Abraham Lincoln said “You can have anything you want — if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, do anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire … “Sure, Lincoln had the right idea. We have the power to achieve anything we want. But what about when factors we can’t control, such as our sex, prevent us from getting what we want, no matter how much we desire it?
A study released Wednesday by the American Association of University Women found that women working full time were paid 82 percent as much as their male counterparts one year after graduating college and finding a job in their chosen career.
Despite the fight for suffrage and control over reproductive rights, women are still discriminated against today. This discrimination is evident in the workplace even among males and females with identical college degrees.
The gender pay gap gets larger in proportion to the level of college degree, according to information compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in December 2011. With a bachelor’s degree, a female will earn only 77 percent of what a male with the same degree will earn. A master’s degree offers only 76 percent, while a professional degree or certificate is even more disturbing — females only receive 72 percent of the same income men do.
The study found that out of the 50 states, Idaho ranks 42nd in terms of pay equality. In our state, women with full-time jobs are only making an average of 75 percent of what men are paid.
The obvious gender gap in pay isn’t dependent on the career choices of women and men. The AAUW formulated a study in 2007 that focused on the presence of the gender gap directly after college graduation. The study, called “Behind the Pay Gap,” compared earnings amounts for female and male graduates one year after their college graduation, and compared them again 10 years after graduation.
The study found that one year after graduation women are paid 80 percent of what men are. Ten years after graduation, females only rake in 69 percent of what men do.
In spite of legislation such as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, the gender pay gap is a continuing issue.
Combating this irrefutable difference takes more than a suit of armor and a pair of combat boots–it takes a voice. It’s not okay to get paid less for a job a woman deserves just as much as any male counterpart.
Supporting the fight for gender pay equality does more than shoot a few extra bucks to the females you work with in the office, at the worksite or in the classroom. Speaking up for gender pay equality is supporting your wife, your sister, your mother, or even your daughter.
Establishing equal pay is establishing equal worth, and a fair paycheck is something everyone deserves.
— CR