Persuasive Paper Example: Gender Pay Gap

Imagine this: After college, you finally graduate with your dream degree, filled with all the knowledge and experience necessary for the rest of your life. You have a massive jump start compared to some of your friends who decided not to risk it and not pursue college as a possibility. You are naive, yet so eager to get to work and spend the rest of your life doing what you love doing. Now, this of course sounds amazing. Most driven people strive to achieve anything remotely near this, let alone completing such a task. Someone who has dedicated and sacrificed many waking hours in order to be prepared for years and years of working hard, day in and day out. Everything is great, until your employer sends you your first paycheck, but then, you realize that someone of the same experience, same hours worked, same skills, same everything, is getting paid more than you, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. You think to yourself, and ponder: Why am I getting only a fraction of what they are getting, for the same work, same experience and same skills? 

But then, it hits you. You figure out the one difference separating this 20 cents on average pay gap per dollar, according to a 2020 research study by Amanda Barroso and Anna Brown of Pewresearch.org, is simply because at birth, you were a female, and this other person was a male. From one switch from an XX to an XY chromosome, you lose 20% of every dollar you earn. How can one simply say this is acceptable, with the numerous studies available to the world to view? The gender pay gap sure does exist, it is systematically detrimental to females and people of color and minority groups, and needs more action from legislation and society as a whole in order to abolish the wage gap between women and men. 

This study, from Barroso and Brown from Pewreaserch.org proves the existence of the wage gap that some people simply deny the existence of. This study details many important facts. “In 2020, women earned 84% of what men earned, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers. Based on this estimate, it would take an extra 42 days of work for women to earn what men did in 2020.” (Barroso and Brown, pg 2.) As stated, this study took the median hourly earnings of full and part time workers and averaged them out between women and men. This found out that women would earn 84% of what a male would earn, with the same educational level, background information, and hours worked. It also found that this would take an extra 42 days of work for women to compensate for this disparity. A full 42 days could mean the difference as a struggling parent trying to simply provide for their family.  “As has been the case in recent decades, the 2020 wage gap was smaller for workers ages 25 to 34 than for all workers 16 and older. Women ages 25 to 34 earned 93 cents for every dollar a man in the same age group earned on average. In 1980, women ages 25 to 34 earned 33 cents less than their male counterparts, compared with 7 cents in 2020. The estimated 16-cent gender pay gap among all workers in 2020 was down from 36 cents in 1980.” (Barroso and Brown, pg 6.) This aspect of the study points out that between the ages of workers 16-25 the gap between the genders is much more profound than ages 25 to 34. This is an important detail to note, because of the fact that most people start working at the age of 16. Ever since the start of earning wages to be economically free, women are put at a significant disadvantage. This could cause an astronomical “snow-ball effect” (Barroso and Brown, pg 9.) for all women. In order to earn more wealth in the world, some initial wealth is required in order to jumpstart this process of becoming financially independent and free, but simply being a female makes this significantly harder to accomplish, but yet still manges for years to plague the world, but why?

At a systematic level, women, and especially people of color from the beginning of societies have been put at a severe disadvantage. According to Megan Rapione, as someone who has done a share of suffering states: “I kind of want to stop just talking about things and [ask], How do we put things in action? How do we help? What do we do? I think I’m ready for that next thing. I want to be more impactful—the money where the mouth is.” (EverydayPower, pg 3.) Although there have been many great and revolutionary strides in creating equality for all such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Civil Rights Act of 1968, (Fair Housing Act) and the Voting Rights Act of 2006. These are some of the monumental bills that congress in the United States have came together to close the gap between women and men. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 “Prohibited discrimination in public accommodations, facilities, and schools. Outlawed discrimination in federally funded projects. Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to monitor employment discrimination in public and private sectors.” (HistoryHouse, pg 1.) The Civil Rights Act of 1968, (Fair Housing Act) “Prohibited discrimination in the sale or rental of approximately 80 percent of the housing in the U.S. Prohibited state governments and Native-American tribal governments from violating the constitutional rights of Native Americans.” (HistoryHouse, pg 2.) The Voting Rights Act of 2006 extended the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for 25 more years. (HistoryHouse, pg 3.)  But yet, these haven’t been enough and sufficient since there are still blant examples of discrimination and sexism with examples such as the pay gap. Congress must order more legislation and come together as bipartisan to rid this plague. 

Just imagine yourself in these shoes as previously stated. Some of us are in this process currently, gone through it already, or are preparing to endure on this trail of discrimination and already putting yourself at a 27% disadvantage per dollar earned (Barroso and Brown, pg 1.) for simply being born a woman rather than male. With median earnings telling a stale role of this disparity and congress’ lack of legislation, although has made many great strides, to fix this systematic predisposition, this problem undeniably exists, and needs to end. Women and especially people of color each and every day are being put even further behind each hour of their job working, for simply being themselves. This is immoral and unjust. This is why it is critical once you are 18. In the United States, legislators are the voices of the people, and when you enact poor legislators, the gender pay gap is a result of this, which is why education and awareness of issues is vital to the success of a society.