The pay gap between genders is increasingly becoming a hot topic of discussion. Recently I have witnessed conversations, read news articles and heard stories about women being paid unfairly and only making a small percentage of what men earn. Forbes Magazine states that in the last decade, full-time working women on average only make 77 percent of what men earn (Maatz).  There is even a day dedicated to recognizing when women's wages finally match men's wages from the previous year; this day is called Equal Pay Day (Maatz).  

The problem of the gender pay gap is important to me because it is something that will personally affect me upon my graduation from college. As defined in the Cambridge Dictionary, the gender pay gap is "the difference between the amounts of money paid to women and men, often for doing the same work". As a woman, I find it unfair that I could work as hard as I can and still earn less than my fellow male co-workers. I believe that something needs to be done soon to close this gap and finally give women equal pay.  For example, imagine that you are the type of person who is driven and works hard because you know that nothing comes easy. However, you just learned that your hard work has not paid off because of your sex. The promotion that you were supposed to have received, the promotion that you earned, was given to someone else because their sex is deemed "more qualified" and your employer thinks people would listen to them more than you. This is not fair. Scenarios like this one need to be stopped. The gender pay gap is real and a solution needs to be initiated in order to solve this problem.  

Throughout history, many antidiscrimination acts have been passed in order to protect women in the workforce. In 1963, the Equal Pay Act (EPA) was passed which made it illegal for employers to pay employees different wages based on their gender (Congressional Digest 14). Title VII, of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, further elaborates on the EPA by stating it is illegal to not only discriminate in wages but also in hiring, firing, benefits and retirement plans. These acts seem to work for a while but then employers started to blatantly ignore them. In 2009, President Obama signed into action the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. This act amended the 1964 Civil Rights Act so that it allowed for filing an equal pay lawsuit to reset with each new paycheck that is affected by discrimination (Congressional Digest 15). It is important that these acts were created because it helped alleviate some of the effects of the pay gap. Without these actions, the pay gap would be far greater than it is today. There has recently been a lot of action taken to help stop the discrimination in the workplace and close the gap; yet, it still is not enough as a large gap still exist in today's society. 

As stated previously, Equal Pay Day is a day to spotlight that although we have come a long way, there is still a large pay gap between the sexes. In 2016, Equal Pay Day will be Tuesday, April 12th. Betsey Stevenson, who is a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, wrote an article titled "Five Facts About the Gender Pay Gap" for whitehouse.gov, which states that the pay gap goes beyond just wages. Stevenson goes on to say that women are also less likely to receive benefits such as health insurance and to have access to paid leave (Stevenson). Stevenson also offers up the idea that as a women's career grows so does the pay gap between her and her male co-workers. It states in the article that men and women tend to start out on the same levels of earnings but as their careers grow this gap increases (Stevenson). Stevenson says that this is most likely due to the fact that women get fewer raises because they tend to negotiate less for them. If they do negotiate for their salaries, then they may still receive less than men or they could be seen as "unpleasant" because they tried to negotiate and go against social norms (Stevenson). 

The gender pay gap is currently getting a lot of media attention.  Just the other week, The New York Times reported that five players from the USWNT (United States Women's National Team) filed a lawsuit against the U.S Soccer program accusing them of wage discrimination (Das). The U.S Soccer program is the governing body for the sport in America and they are responsible for paying the national teams (Das). The report stated that the women's national team members receive 40 percent less than what the men's team makes, even when the women's team has more titles and championships won (Das). The U.S Soccer program has commented back and said that the men are paid more because they bring in a larger audience and television ratings. However, that was certainly not the case in 2015 when the women's national team set audience records and brought in revenue of more than $16 million (Das). The USWNT said that it was about time they stood up and said something instead of just sitting around waiting for it to fix itself.   In other media news, actress Jennifer Lawrence recently did an interview with television reporter Diane Sawyer and discussed her feelings towards the gender pay gap in Hollywood. Jennifer Lawrence stated that she recently found out that she was paid significantly less than her fellow male co-workers in her last movie (Lawrence). She also commented that she did not want to negotiate for higher pay because she did not want to seem "spoiled" or "difficult" (Lawrence). Now Jennifer Lawrence is a strong advocate for securing equal pay for women.  These two high-profile examples show that gender wage discrimination is not just affecting those in small businesses but is evident in higher-profile careers as well. 

Countless journalists have done research and conducted studies to find out more about the factors that cause this pay gap to exist. According to the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, women are discriminated against in the workplace for various reasons. Gender discrimination can include hiring a man and a woman for the same position but offering them different salaries or benefits; not promoting a woman because it is assumed others will not listen to her, and insisting women wear different work clothing (Victorian). The gender pay gap is not just caused by discrimination against women but research has shown that other factors may contribute to it. Nicole Fortin, a professor of economics who has been published in the Journal of Human Resources, analyzes the pay gap by suggesting that the gap is caused by factors such as personality traits and non-cognitive factors. Fortin conducts a model that shows that while women tend to value being successful to support their families, men tend to value "having lots of money" and being a leader (Fortin 888). She explains that valuing people and family tends to have a negative impact on earnings while valuing money tends to have a positive impact on earnings (Fortin 889). Other factors have been analyzed and discovered to impact the pay gap such as competitiveness and confidence. Michelle Travis, a professor and co-director of USF's Labor and Employment Law Program who specializes in gender wage discrimination, says that Title VII tends to lack in success because of the stereotype that "women don't ask" (Travis 895). This stereotype says that women do not bargain for their salaries thus creating a large gap because men do. Travis says that in order to close the gap this stereotype needs to be abolished and women need to start fighting for higher salaries (Travis 923). From discrimination to other factors, it is undeniable that a gap between male and females wages exists. 

Women are negatively impacted by the gender wage gap in multiple ways. Claire Roller wrote an article for the UCLA Women's Law Journal that talked about the lack of women in STEM (science technology engineering and math) occupations (Roller 145). This lack of women in STEM jobs means that there is a larger number of women in lower paying jobs in other industries and this has had certain negative effects. Roller states that women in lower paying non-STEM jobs are more likely to be laid off, leave the workplace to care for their family because their job is easy to leave, and earn less than men doing similar work (Roller 148). Lisa Maatz also notes some negative effects of the gender pay gap in her article "The Awful Truth Behind The Gender Pay Gap". Maatz writes that because women are paid less, it makes it harder for them to pay back their student debt and forces them to change their plans of saving for retirement (Maatz). These negative effects can cause serious problems for women in the future when they are trying to plan their retirement and trying to plan how they are going to pay back all their student loans. Women should not have to suffer from these negative effects of something that they cannot control. Something needs to be done about the gap before any more women have to suffer from these effects.  

Despite the studies and experiments that show a difference in the amount that men and women earn, there are still people who believe that the gender pay gap is a myth.  Mark Perry and Andrew Biggs wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal called "The '77 Cents on the Dollar Myth About Women's Pay". They stated that the reason there is a so-called "pay gap" is because women tend to leave work to care for their newborns and when they finally decide to come back to work, they lack experience for higher paying jobs (Perry). Perry and Biggs also hint at the fact that men tend to be involved in more "dangerous" jobs, which usually come with a higher salary (Perry).  However, this article has not been adequately peer reviewed to provide valid evidence to substantiate their opinions.

Carrie Lukas is another believer in the idea that the gender pay gap is a myth. It is important to note that a woman wrote this article so it is unreasonable to assume that all women believe there is a gender pay gap. One of Lukas' main reasons for believing the gap does not exist is the fact that during a recession, men are usually hit the hardest because they usually have the highest paying jobs. So, men tend to have a greater unemployment rate than women. Steve Tobak adds on to this argument in his article "The Gender Pay Gap Is a Complete Myth". He states that the men in the higher paying jobs tend to be required to work on the weekends, which allows for them to earn more money (Tobak). There are a number of people who believe in the counter-arguments presented by Lukas, Tobak and Perry; however, that does not make the gender pay gap any less real. 

There are many faults in these accusations questioning the gender pay gap. Biggs' and Perry's argument seems to overestimate the amount of women who leave the workplace to care for the families. These numbers alone cannot be large enough to be the whole reason behind the pay gap. Also, women are just as capable at holding many "dangerous jobs" as men are. There seems to be an understanding that men are overrepresented in higher paying jobs but there are just as many successful women out there who are willing to put in the time and effort to back up their success. Biggs and Perry's, Lukas', and Tobak's articles are all periodical articles that have not been peer reviewed. Not having been peer edited, the articles may be resourceful for anyone crafting an opinion, but the articles are also very biased because of  the authors' opinions and apparent personal agenda.

There has been a lot of talk about different actions and ideas that could potentially help diminish the gender pay gap. In 2000, Paula England wrote about the pay gap between male and female jobs in the Law and Social Inquiry. She explains that two things need to happen in order to shrink the pay gap: an increase in a women's ability to perform in male-specific jobs and an increase in the salaries of women so that they match the salaries of men (England 914). Other actions have actually been proposed and some have become written into new laws. In The Washington Post, Drew Harwell and Danielle Paquette reported on how President Obama has been discussing a new act that will allow the government to police pay inequality more efficiently (Harwell). This act will require major companies to hand over a report of the salaries based on race, gender and ethnicity (Harwell). This act will make it easier for the government to crack down on businesses that are engaged in biased gender pay practices. Passing laws and acts are not the only things that can be done to help the problem of the increasing pay gap. A problem that Hilary Lips sees with the gender pay gap is the way that it is measured. Some companies measure the gap using hourly wages but there are many problems with this technique. This technique does not account for full-time workers who are salaried but may have varying work hours each week (Lips 171). Lips also states that another reason measuring the gap based on hourly wages is inaccurate is because this method does not account for all employee bonuses received (Lips 172). Lips found that on average men tend to be more likely to receive bonuses and have other non-monetary compensations like having a company car, cell phone or laptop (Lips 172). It is easy to see that something needs to be done about how the wage gap should be addressed. What is challenging to the gender pay topic is how to combine better ways to accurately measure the gap and how to write new laws that allow for harsher consequences for businesses that get caught discriminating by gender. 

Each day more and more light is being shed on the issue of the gender pay gap as more people realize the scope of the problem and become determined to do something about the inequality it creates.  People may continue to believe that the gap exists because women tend to leave work for family or that women do not negotiate enough for their wages. However, with the evidence provided, I strongly believe that there is a gap and it exists mainly because of discrimination and the obstacles that prohibit women from reaching their full potential in the workplace. A new way to measure the pay gap needs to be created so that we can accurately find how much the gap is and adjust it willingly and proactively. Measuring by hourly wages is not working anymore and a new measurement should be put into place. I also believe that more regulations need to be put into place that call for harsher punishment to businesses that do discriminate, whether is based on sex, race or ethnicity. I hope to live in a world soon where discrimination in the workplace is not another obstacle to overcome and where men and women with the same job title earn the same salary. 

