The Gender Wage Gap

As college students, we are preparing ourselves for the American work force. Along with this preparation, we must be conscious of workplace inequality. The latest Census data reports that women are still only making about 77% of what men make in the United States. This percentage is even lower when race is factored in (68% for African-American women and only 58% for Latins). We would like to think that our progressive society has pushed past discrimination and inequality, but these statistics are disturbing.
Some would argue that this gap is only created because women are traditionally in lower paying careers. It was reported by Time News that if you control for factors such as education, the gap decreases significantly. However, in a study presented by Womens Media, it was found that women with the same level of education still only make a percentage of what men are making (75% even at the Doctoral level!). Even within the same career, women may make less than men based on title. A male worker may have the title of "register specialist", a higher paying job, while a female worker with the same job may have the title "clerk". Of course, this is a little extreme, but you get the point.
So what can we do to see that this wage gap is put to an end? The government is attempting to face this problem through a bill targeting the U.S. wage gap signed into effect by President Obama. The last thing that working women can do is simply ignore the problem and assume that this is just how it is going to be. Contact your local representative, advocate through media, or become educated about the pay practices of potential employers. We can hope that progress will be made and that one day the wage gap will be nonexsistent.

Want more information on this issue? Read the following articles!
Time news: http://tinyurl.com/y7s23f7
Womens Media: http://tinyurl.com/3y2myf