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Kim Poulsen
Mr. Ben Jorgensen
Writing 1010
May 4, 2016
Men Vs. Women: A Fight For Pay
One day John walked in a grocery store and bought a snickers candy bar. The cashier
charged him 79 cents. Suzy went to the same grocery store and bought the same snickers candy
bar. The cashier charged her $1.00. Does this situation seem right to you? Across the country a
similar problem exists. Even though it is not fair, a gap exists between men and women.
Women make an average of twenty-one cents less for every dollar a man earns. It is
shameful to see anything like this fact even exists in the 21st century. Unfortunately, this does not
just affect the dollar earned hourly. Some things you may not think of could be pension plans,
retirement, education, age, or even ethnicity. Sports Illustrated even brought to attention a
lawsuit filed by the U.S. Womens National Soccer team because of wage discrimination and
inequality. The severity of the problem can vary based on education and work experience but
many examples show it is still a problem.
Regionally, the gap in wage between men and women can increase or decrease. In Utah,
for example, the gender wage gap is around 30 percent. However, Maryland, has an average gap
of only 15 percent (Gray). The Salt Lake Tribune shows possible reasons for this in a recent
article. The article starts by saying discrimination is to blame. Though this may be part of the
problem, the article also states fewer women are graduating college than a generation ago in

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Utah. Many that do graduate from college are choosing lower paying careers like teaching. These
factor along with child care choices seem to affect the wage of women (Knox).
Obviously, discrimination of any kind is illegal and strictly forbidden. Unfortunately, I
have seen through my own experiences a difference in wages awarded because of my gender. I
have had coworkers with less experience offered more money for the same position I held than I
was ever granted. Luckily, over time I have been able to prove my worth and close the gap a fair
amount but it isnt easy. There are several examples of others who have fought for equality with
mixed results.
Ethnicity and race is an area where companies may discriminate. Reshma Daniel moved
with her family from India to the U.S.A. when she was young to better their lives. When her
parents couldnt find work they moved up to Canada to find jobs. By the time she was college
age her family had returned to the U.S. with better jobs. Reshma chose to go to law school where
she encountered sign of wage inequality. She was told by a fellow Vietnamese lawyer to give up
because of her own struggles with a large wage gap. This fellow lawyer blamed the gap on her
ethnicity and gender. Reshma chose to still go to school to be a lawyer hoping that the wage gap
between men and women would be gone by the time she graduated. Unfortunately, research
shows women are paid seven percent less than men upon graduation (Owens, Pay Inequality
Threatens College Students American Dream).
Maxine Lampe found that as an educator in Iowa some policies affected earnings
unnecessarily. At the time she was married and her husband did not work because he was going
to graduate school. Because of her marital status they would not pay her as much because of a
head of household policy put in place by the administration. She fought for equality since women

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should be given equal pay regardless of status. After all, equality is one thing this country was
founded on (Owens, Denied Fair Pay, She Became an Advocate).
AAUW.org shows that age can play a major factor in pay inequality. Research shows
that in your teenage years it is pretty equal wage wise between men and women. When women
hit the ages between twenty-five and thirty-five the wage gap begins to increase. Some have said
this is because of child care, but, should this even influence the problem at all? From twentyfive the gap seems to increase higher until nearly age sixtyfive. The difference in the pay gap
leading into retirement age seems to decrease slightly. This could be due to beginning pension
plans which are often less discriminate than actual pay.
Retirement plans are often an option for full time employees and not given to part time
workers. A 401K from an employer invests a small percentage of a workers wage for that great
day we all anticipate when we can live our days at the lake or golf course. When discrimination
exists because of gender a smaller percentage will be withheld for retirement. Less money in the
account means less to live on after retirement (whitehouse.gov).
Even in professional sports, often one of the higher paying jobs, women always get paid
less than men in nearly any sport they play whether it be soccer, basketball, or even golf. One
example has been brought to attention through a lawsuit by the U.S. Womens National Soccer
team. The womans team stated that each woman is paid $1,350 per win. At the same time men
are paid $9,375 to $17,625 per win based on rank of the opposing team. Men are also paid
$5,000 for every loss regardless of rank of the opposing team (Wahl). In golf, the 2014 PGA tour
prize money was over $340 million. The 2015 LPGA prize money was only $61.6 million. That
is over five times more money for the men! These are just a few examples of the many sports
with this problem (womenssportsfoundation.org).

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In 2015, the minimum salary in the WNBA was $38,913 and the maximum was
$109,500. Compare that to the NBA minimum salary which was $525,093. So a player that sits
on the bench almost all season makes over five times more than the best paid WNBA player.
Unfortunately it gets worse before it gets better. The highest paid NBA player gets paid just over
$16 million. Needless to say that it is about time that we start to support womens basketball
(womenssportsfoundation.org)!
Due to sponsorships and marketing strategies more money is put toward mens sports.
Marketing makes fans support mens teams more often than women. The over hype of mens
sports is beginning to be a turn off for some fans. Basketball may have the best chance of helping
change this issue. Many fans are becoming disgusted with how over paid NBA stars are. The
WNBA is trying to get more sponsorships and support of fans to stay alive (Gettings). Becky
Hammon, a former WNBA player, may be able to prove the true potential women have in sports.
Becky Hammon went to college at Colorado State hoping she would get drafted into the
WNBA, but she had no such luck. She tried out seven different times to see if she would be
drafted. She was rejected all seven times. That did not stop Becky from trying even harder. She
was finally drafted by the New York Liberty. She ended up being a seven time all-star in the
WNBA prior to tearing her ACL. After that she was able to make history as the first woman to
ever coach in the NBA. She is now an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs. She was the
head coach for the San Antonio Spurs summer league. They went all the way to win the summer
league. Becky is still continuing to make history for women in professional sports because of her
skills and now the ability to give women a little more recognition (Berger).
Unlike some sports as mentioned earlier, in 2007 Wimbledon announced that all the prize
money will be equal for men and women. All four grand slam events that tennis holds are now

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equal with the prize money for all champions. Another sport which has started to make equal pay
is Surfing professionals. The World Surfing League gives their men and women national tour
event winners equal prize money. Thanks to these organizations and other trends things may be
starting to change slowly (womenssportsfoundation.org).
I know that some people do try to pay equally or better for women. One example includes
my father in law when he was in charge of hiring new employees. He hired a women who was
valedictorian of her class and only had little experience in accounting work previously. After
looking over her resume he ended up paying her nearly as much as he made with over fifteen
years of experience. Other men in the department hired roughly the same time were paid less
because of lack of qualifications.
Sometimes when you move up within the same company your wage may stay lower than
someone from the outside. Companies see that as a decent pay raise to their employee because
they started at a lower pay rate. Companies think they are giving there employee a favor but in
reality, if they are not competitive with the outside market they are hurting their employee pay
wise, especially if they bring a new employee from the outside who wants more money or has
gotten more money from other competitors within the same field.
There may be some that think women cannot handle labor intensive jobs as well as men.
This may be true to those Barbie types that act inferior. However, women are capable of doing
better, more efficient work in these fields when they put forth the effort. Dustin Nelson said
After working three years at a manufacturing plant, I know this absolutely not true. The women
that worked with me were doing the same physically intensive work as the men and were far
more efficient in quality. If you ask me, they produced better products.

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Success is earned not given. In order to make a change in the way things are one must
work hard to succeed in making things happen. For women in the workplace this means doing
everything possible to stay marketable from continued education to persistently doing things
better. It takes action and persistence. Parents and role models to children must help in teaching
that women are worth as much a men are. If everyone were to lead by example in this way this
issue will surely take care of itself.