Winning The Battle “Waged” On Women

By: JaCorey Thompson

Source:http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report-nirbhaya-alarm-device-to-help-women-in-distress-1923919

There is a global pandemic that has been affecting women for many years. It’s not deadly but it is a terrible thing. I am talking about the pay gap between males and females.

In 1963 the Equal Pay Act was passed. This was passed to help abolish the pay gap between the genders. This was over 50 years ago. Today, a full time working women is only paid 79% of what a full time working man makes. I decided to interview teachers and staff at our school to see what they think about the issue.

• Do you feel there is a pay gap between genders?

Mr. Smith:

“In the field that I’m in I don’t feel that because we have a pay schedule that has been approved by the school district. But I do hear at times in some other fields that there is one.”

Mr. Roush: Yeah, I don’t think there’s a way to deny that men and women are not paid equally for the work that they’ve done. That’s something that throughout our country's history has existed.       

• How do you feel about it and the steps people are making to reach wage parity?

Mrs. Vaverka: I’m not real familiar with what people are doing but I believe that if I’m doing the same job as a women, that a man is doing, that it should be for the same wage.

Dr.Mitchell: First of all I feel like it’s not fair, especially when people have the same credentials and education. I don’t know what people are doing to solve it. To be honest with you I don’t think people are doing a whole lot to do anything about it.

• Q3: In the past or currently have you experienced wage inequality?

Mrs. Zacharias: I never have because up until this job I’ve worked hourly jobs where you’re paid on how long you’re there.

Mrs. Vaverka: Yes, I was in an office setting and I took over a job that a man had been doing but didn’t get the same wage he did. Even after several wage increases and after I had been there for as long as he did.

• Q4: Do you think the government is taking the necessary steps to end this?

Mrs. Zacharias: I think to a certain extent it’s not necessarily the government job to end this. I feel like private companies are going to pay their employees what they think their worth. For the government to tell companies you need to pay your employees this much is overstepping a little bit. arias:

Dr. Mitchell: No I don’t think the government is taking the necessary steps in a lot of stuff that is going on.

This article was about the wage inequality between the genders. In the responses, it showed that this is a subject everyone knows about, but not a lot of people are doing the things they could be doing to help end this. I know this because on IWPR.com it states that “at this rate it will be 2059 before we reach wage parity.”

I did this interview to raise awareness and see people’s views on this sensitive subject. I interviewed both genders so the results wouldn’t be biased towards one side. I would like to thank Mrs. Vaverka, Mrs. Zacharias, Mr. Smith, Mr. Roush, and Dr. Mitchell for their participation in this project.