Wage Gap Between Men and Women

Running head: WAGE GAP BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN

Wage Gap Between Men and Women

Major Paper

Jodi M Heil

Davenport University

ECON 625

Dr. Jeff Miles

October 16th, 2012

Abstract

For years men and women have been doing the same job but not receiving the same pay. During President Barak Obama's term he has created Lilly Ledbetter's Fair Pay Act which evens the playing field as far as equal pay is concerned when is comes to males and females working and competing in this global economy. In this paper I will look at how times have changed not only economically but also how most families require two incomes to life comfortably. Men and women that perform the same daily tasks should receive the same compensation. Gender should never determine your pay scale. This paper will talk about the equal pay act and how and why it was created.

Men and women that have the same skill set, education and experience should make the same wage and or salary. President Barack Obama passed the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act as one of the first bills when he came into office. Most of this bill was because a single mother herself raised the President. The President believes women should make the same wage as a man. Pay decreases should never be made because of gender especially in 2012. The average pay gap between men and women continued to decline last year, falling by 0.4 percentage points, but still leaving a 12.2 per cent difference, according to the Office for National Statistics.

"The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (Pub.L. 111-2, S. 181) is a federal statute in the United States that was the first bill signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 29, 2009. The Act amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 stating that the 180-day statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit regarding pay discrimination resets with each new paycheck affected by that discriminatory action. The law directly addressed Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 550 U.S. 618(2007), a U.S. Supreme Court decision that the statute of limitations for presenting an equal-pay lawsuit begins on the date that the employer makes the initial discriminatory wage decision, not at the date of the most recent paycheck"(Grossman, 2009).

The Act was to amend title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and to modify the operation of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, to clarify that a discriminatory compensation decision or other practice that is unlawful under such Acts occurs each time compensation is paid pursuant to the discriminatory compensation decision or other practice, and for other purposes (Grossman, 2009).

Much of this Act was put into place to save the middle class. More and more families are being raised by single-family households, which include women. Over 50% of American marriages end up in divorce, which leads to both parents working. This typically leaves the mother working and raising children. Statics show that in about 18% of homes the father just leaves ended up not supporting the children at all that is an alarming high. If the mother has to work then she should receive equal pay.

My personal touch comes into play because I was raised in a single mother household. My mother worked 60+ hours a week to make sure my brother and I never went without anything. We did essentially raise ourselves because my mother worked so much but never needed or wanted anything when it came to the necessities or material things. This can have an adverse effect on how children are raised. My brother and I washed our own laundry, made our own meals and learned to take of each other at a very young age which I know happens quite frequently in homes all around the world. We always liked Sundays because we could spend time with our mother and she would cook for us. It was hard on us as a family at the time but it did teach us responsibilities and to work hard for nice things.

My brother and I both turned out as upstanding citizens but in some aspects I feel like we were robbed of our childhood. We worried about things that as small children you should not have to worry about. If my mother would have gotten the amount of money or salary for doing the same job that she did while being paid as a male gender then she could have spent less time working and more time with her children which I think would