By Jennifer Garvey
Fantastic. The gender pay gap is increasing in England. Although this isn’t an American statistic it is true here as well, and I feel that it is a huge American problem. For a while the pay gap was decreasing and women were making more and more to the man’s dollar. However, in the recent years women have been making less and less, and all I can think is what the hell?! I mean come on, women were making close to 90 cents to the dollar in the 90’s and now almost 15 years later we’re regressing?
All I can say is”¦ thank you Bush, and every conservative who tries to reassure women that their place is in the home. Women’s goals are not to have a lot of babies and vacuum everyday so deal with it! Pay us that extra 30 cents to the dollar because we deserve it. In fact more women are graduating from college now than men! So why is this gap increasing? As a helpful co-worker pointed out to me today, there is a higher percentage of women going into graduate school as well and why is that? Probably because women have to prove themselves more than men do, so we need that extra degree to prove that we deserve what men earn with a bachelor’s degree.
What is happening in our society that companies think that this is okay to do? Also, thanks to the ruling in the case of Ledbetter v. Goodyear where it was stated that employees must make their complaints of pay discrimination within 180 days “after the alleged unlawful employment practice occurred,” this pay gap is going to continue to worsen. Although the law says that employees can file a discrimination claim it would be nearly impossible to do so in 180 days because most people don’t even know that they aren’t being paid fairly.
Ugh, and ugh again. That’s all I can say or feel.