Wage Gap In America

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Pages: 5

Wage Gaps
Discrimination has been a part of since the beginning of time, specifically in the workplace. The reasons for the wage gap are disputable, and is also blamed on women themselves. The existence and root cause for the wage gap has been a controversy for decades. Wage inequality persists due to preconceived gender roles, occupational segregation, and the devalue of women’s work in the labor market. Since the beginning of American society, women were bound to strict roles they had to serve in society. Mothers typically stayed at home, caring for children and preparing food . Until the equal pay act in 1968, women’s salaries were 58% of men’s . America has changed drastically, and women are no longer bound to the same strict conventions placed on them in earlier centuries. However, there are subtle gender roles that do not necessarily pressure women themselves, but how they are
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As of 2010, women now make up nearly half the work force, 35.2% more than before the equal pay act . On average, 63.9% of mothers are their family’s primary breadwinner, and over 12 million families nationwide depend predominantly on women’s income Merely one in five children are raised in a traditional family setting, with a male provider and female housewife . America’s ideology for women has changed, but their pay has not. Single women without kids hardly experience a pay gap, gaining 96% compared to men of the same status. For every child, there is a penalty of 7.8% off a women’s paycheck. On the contrary, the fatherhood bonus raises men’s average salaries by 11.6% . Even more surprising is the wages of lesbians compared to heterosexual women. Lesbians are paid 33% more than their heterosexual counterparts. The reason for this dramatic difference is simple: