Women have come a long way in their struggle for equality with men.  But generally speaking, women still do not earn as much money in the job market as men do.  Women earn only about 77 cents for every dollar that men earn.

I find this news very discouraging; I feel that women should earn the same amount of money if they are doing the same work as their male counterparts.

When I first entered the job market umpteen years ago, I found that the company that I worked for systematically paid the male employees more money than they paid the female employees – for the exact same job.  When I inquired why that was so, the reply was that “men had families to support and needed the money more than the females did.”

The logic behind that assumption was that the men that worked there were married, with children, and that the wives stayed home to take care of the children.  And the assumption continued that the women that worked there were young and single and only had to worry about supporting themselves.  So the company felt that they were paying their employees based on their employees needs, rather than on their level of production.

I have always felt that if I am producing at the same level as another person, I should be paid the same as that other person, regardless of marital/family status.  I ended up going to work for a large, unionized corporation, where the union contract prevented that type of wage gap discrimination.  For me, that was the best option for me to be treated more fairly.

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