By Sophie Lichtenstein
Despite the strides that have been made towards gender equality in America, a significant wage gap still persists. Overall, women make 83 percent of what men earn.
In 1963, the Equal Pay Act banned wage discrimination on the basis of sex, yet in the United States and across the world, equal pay has not yet been achieved. Interestingly, the wage gap widens as women advance in their careers, according to a Pew Research study. In 2010, women ages 25-34 earned up to 92 percent as much as their male counterparts. In 2022, that same group of women, who are now between the ages of 37 and 46, earned 84 percent as much as men in their age category.
In fact, the gap is larger among those in the workplace who have children. In the age group 35-44 years of age, 94 percent of fathers are active in the workplace compared to 75 percent of mothers. However, there is only a 6 percent disparity between women and men who do not have children, with 78 percent of women and 84 percent of men active in the workplace in the same age category.
Women of color typically fare worse than the national average, and some groups are stagnating or even backtracking in their progress towards equal pay. In 2021, Latinas took home only 54 percent of non-Hispanic white men made. This ratio has been slow to change; the earning ratio of Latina to white men only increased four percent between 1988 and 2019.
While there is still much progress to be made to achieve gender equality, women have also accomplished great victories. Four of the nine justices serving on the Supreme Court of the United States are women, and the current Vice President of the United States is female. Organizations like the National Organization for Women and the Global Fund for Women work diligently to ensure equal rights for all women.