WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE FOR EQUAL PAY FOR WOMEN

If people are created equal and should be treated as equals, then why is it that women agree with Teresa Amott's statement, "inequality among women has increased". One reason there is inequality is that women and men do not get paid equally. Even though the gap between pay is narrowing, the U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau reports that full-time women earn 75.4% of men's wages and salary and hourly working women earn 79.4% of men's hourly wage. Women teaching in Maryland's public two- and four-year institutions have proceed to get paid less than men. these women only get paid 67% of men's wages. There are many reasons why there are differences in pay, which are:

1. women's education and skill

2. businesses base pay on seniority

3. women are denied career opportunities

4. women can work only a set number of hours or days unlike men.

Since womenÕs education and skill has not progressed as rapidly as menÕs, some businesses feel that it is justifiable to increase the pay of a man over a womanÕs. Businesses often feel that the man may perform one or two tasks better than a woman. For instance, he may be able to stack more boxes per hour than a women, so that justifies an increase in pay. The businesses pay additional money because of acquired seniority. If there is a need for a leave of absence, then the seniority will still be compounded. Unfortunately, if a woman takes a leave of absence because of a pregnancy, her seniority does not get compounded. Because of this, a womanÕs pay will be less than her male co-worker if she must take a leave of absence because of her pregnancy. Women are often denied the opportunities to work high paying occupations that are generally occupied by men. The denial can be based on many things but the main reason is because the first responsibility held by women is to take care of family, therefore any job that requires more commitment, such as longer hours, but gets paid more is sacrificed because of family needs. This is creating a gap between the pay of men and women because men will be getting paid more than women. Lastly, it is obvious that if women can work only a set number of hours or days unlike men, who can work more hours, then the pay men earn will be greater than women. All these reasons contribute to unequal pay. Are these justifiable and rational reasons which allow a man more pay than a woman who can perform the same task as a man? There should be no reasons why a woman should get paid less if both the male and female are performing the same task. Because there are no reasons to justify this problem of unequal pay, there should be measures taken in order for the pay to be equal among men and women. >WORK CITED