One of my daily rituals is looking at the Cosmopolitan Snapchat. It was Tuesday, April 12, when I discovered it was Equal Pay Day. I was immediately disgusted and felt an uneasiness wash over me.
I've recently read articles that use the term "wage gap" in quotations, as if it's a joke, a dramatization, something that doesn't exist and shouldn't be taken seriously.
Sadly, ignorance is something that will never be obsolete so long as there are humans on this earth.
The wage gap (no quotations) is real. It's legitimate. It's a recurring problem.
Equal Pay Day shouldn't exist. First, because women should make as much as men. Period. Second, the name of the day implies that women and men are making the same amount, when in reality, we aren't. On this day, females made what men made in a year, but it's not "equal pay" because the men are already almost four months into another year of pay. They're almost four months ahead of us. That's not equal — at least, not the last time I checked.
Equal should mean same pay for the same positions, regardless of gender, race, religion and you name it. Equal pay in the same amount of time. We should not acknowledge Equal Pay Day because it's anything but equal.
Tech Times reported women make 79 cents per every dollar men make, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. They also reported that American women who work full-time have an average salary of $39,621 while American men who work full-time have an average salary of $50,383. Now, I'm not a math major, so I just did the math on my trusty calculator and found the difference to be $10,762. Let me repeat that: $10,762.
The American Association of University Women, AAUW, reported that Michigan is ranked 42 in the United States for their earnings ratio of men to women. In Michigan, women make 75 cents to every dollar a man makes. D.C. is ranked first, with women making 90 cents to every dollar a man makes, and Louisiana is ranked in dead last, with women only making 65 cents to every dollar.
And, it's not just women in general. Depending on their ethnicity, they can make even less than 79 cents per dollar when compared to men of their own ethnicity and also white men. Women with the same amount of education as men make less than they do, even when it comes to having a bachelor's or advanced degree.
Because of having inferior pay, women have a harder time paying off student loans than men do.
It's 2016, let's get with the program. We have advanced smartphones that can just about anything we want them to do and we have cars that park themselves. Don't you think it's time men and women get paid the same amount of money for doing the same job?
If they are in the same position, doing the same work, putting in the same time, what makes a man's time and effort worth 21 cents more?
I'm waiting for the day when Equal Pay Day is everyday. When my work, time and effort are worth as much as a man's. When my education and knowledge are valued equally. When my opinion isn't degraded simply because I'm female.
