What the Gender Pay Gap Looks Like Today
By: Alyssa Velez
My mom has been a nurse for as long as I can remember. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I didn’t know what to expect. She began working long hours, coming home with N-95 imprints on her face, swollen feet, and exhaustion. She worked early in the morning and late into the evening. She was constantly exposed to the virus. I’m proud of her and the work she does, but I am not thrilled about the gap between her salary and her male counterparts.
In the United States, 86% of healthcare workers are women. More than half of the workforce during the pandemic were also women. However all of these women were, and still are, not being paid equally. In Indiana alone, women make 24% less than a man does. Being essential does not equate to being equal, at least not yet.
In general, the gender pay gap has had unfair consequences for women even before the pandemic. Women are punished financially if they choose to take care of their children over their careers. They are punished if they do not save the right amount of money in their savings or retirement accounts. Women are punished for being women.
Because men are ahead of women in earning money, men are also ahead in saving. One in three women live paycheck to paycheck, which is almost five times the number of men living paycheck to paycheck (CNBC). This, along with being paid less than men, is a significant reason women are unable to fill the gap between men in regards to savings.
Women are also more likely to work part-time than men, and because of this, they are not offered retirement plans or other benefits. A majority of women work part-time to care for their children or families as a whole. Women are seen and act as caretakers more so than men, but even the men who are seen as caretakers do not find themselves in the same disparities as women. Because a large portion of women work part-time, they are not qualified for the same benefits, such as retirement savings and insurance, as full-time employees. Thus, creating negative consequences for these women, and their families.
A 2020 report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) shows half of all American households with children under 18 rely heavily on a working mother’s earnings. Along with this information, lower-income families depend heavily on women’s earnings because they are the sole provider. With the gender pay gap as it currently stands, this means that lower-income families are just as worse off, or possibly worse, than the women they depend on.
On the other hand of the negative consequences unequal pay brings, there are positive consequences that equal pay could bring. An article by Amy Livingston of Money Crashers lists that each working woman would be able to pay for:
More than 13 additional months of child care
65 weeks’ worth of food for her family
More than nine months of rent, or more than six months of mortgage and utility payments
A full year of tuition and fees at a four-year public university, or the full cost of tuition and fees at a two-year community college
Closing the gender wage gap opens a plethora of doors for women and children.
Did you know that if women were paid equally, they would be able to stop working on October 29th? Meaning that if women were to make their current average salary, based on equal pay, they would be able to stop working two months before the year is over. Two whole months. Since the 1960s, more and more women have entered the workforce. However, the enthusiasm women have to work has not been met with the equality it deserves.