In 2024, The Wage Gap Still Exists

In 1920, the 20th Amendment gave women the right to vote. In 1972, the 14th Amendment and evolution of Title XI gave women equality in educational programs. In 1963, between these historic achievements, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, granting women the right to be treated and paid equally in the workplace. 

But even today, 61 years after the Equal Pay Act, women working full time earn 84% of what men earn, on average, according to the University of Virginia. This ratio has hardly improved over the past few decades, increasing from 60% in the 1960s, according to Investopedia. 

American ideologies affirming women don’t deserve the same pay as men are outdated and unjustifiable in the modern world — like those claiming the inequality is validated by women’s lack of education and work experience. 

But women today aren’t restricted in obtaining the education they want. Their right to education has been secured, yet women are still viewed as less capable because of the limitations they used to have. 

Molly Mitchell, senior associate director for the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, wrote women now thrive in educational settings more often than men. She’s found they’re more likely to graduate from high school and college, and more likely to gain higher education degrees. 

“They earn half of all doctorates,” Mitchell wrote. “In MBA programs, women represent 47 percent of those receiving graduate business degrees from U.S. business schools (in 2020) — a significant increase from less than 5 percent in 1970.”

Women’s access to education isn’t lacking, the acceptance that they already have it is. 

One argument made against equal pay is women need to care for their families and therefore can’t work as many hours. But men are parents too, and yet they don’t face the same financial discrimination. A 2023 study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found men who have children often take smaller paycuts than women. In comparison to men, women often receive a $2,000 decrease in quarterly earnings after giving birth. 

In fact, men often experience a fatherhood bonus, as they’re more likely to be hired, better paid and seen as more competent after having children. Women, however, face a motherhood penalty, experiencing the opposite, according to The New York Times. 

On average, men’s earnings increase by over 6% when they become a father, while women’s decrease by 4% for each child they have. This is largely due to old-fashioned notions women are distracted by motherhood while men are made dependable by fatherhood, according to The New York Times. 

Women have been fighting for equality for decades. Lilly Ledbetter, a former Alabama factory manager, discovered she was being paid less than the men holding her same position, according to the National Women’s Hall of Fame. 

She brought the Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. case all the way to the Supreme Court in 2007 but eventually lost because workers were required to file lawsuits within six months of first receiving a discriminatory paycheck, and she filed after 19 years of checks. 

Although Ledbetter lost her case, her fight led to landmark wage discrimination legislation and prompted the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. This gave workers the right to sue within 180 days of receiving any discriminatory paycheck. 

Ledbetter was just one of the millions of women treated unequally in a country constantly preaching the importance of equality. Unfortunately it may be up to women like her to stand up against their unequal wages and fight against the world’s male-serving agenda.