Wage gap still looms over workplace

In America today, women earn 22 percent less in wages than men every year. When comparing the average range of earnings for full-time, year-round jobs, men make $46,367 while women make $35,745. That places women's earnings at $10,622 less than their male counterparts. Women of color earn even less. It is easy to assume these issues are a thing of the past, and they have been addressed and should no longer be a cause for concern. That assumption is a many-sided issue.One cause of the gender wage gap is occupational segregation. Because of customs and socialization, women tend to choose employment from the same small pool of occupations that remain heavily concentrated with women. As studies have shown, the more women in the field, the less it pays, and even in these jobs - from doctors, lawyers and professional athletes to laundry workers and dishwashers - women are paid less than men. One of the discrepancies between male and female wages is that often, women don't tend to negotiate their salaries.

Studies have shown that a woman who negotiates wages is less likely to be hired than a man in the same position. Companies will go out of their way to avoid negotiations with women who do ask for equal pay. Example? Instead of raising wages for their nurses, hospitals will fix their salaries and bring in nurses from outside the country who are then paid lower wages.

Right now in Congress there is a bill called the Fair Pay Act, which aims to reduce wage discrimination. The goal of the Fair Pay Act is to establish equal pay for equivalent work in areas that are dominated by women or minorities. This means that within a company, women or minority members doing work that is equally important to the employer, cannot be paid less. The Act makes exceptions for seniority, merit or quality and quantity of work and also exempts small businesses.

Writing off these wage issues as insignificant or saying the problem will solve itself is a luxury for those who do not feel the effects of gender based discrimination. But the women who have to face this reality, and their families who rely on them to bring home a decent pay check, do not have that luxury. Without capital, these women barely have a voice at all and must contend with surviving in addition to defending their rights. While it is easy to ignore the problem, as Martin Luther King said, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Personally, as a woman and a soon-to-be graduate heading out into the work force, I find these numbers disturbing and foreboding. Sadly, I must keep an eye on the wage gap as it continues to fluctuate in favor of men.