Urge Congress to Establish a Commission That Will Evaluate Businesses' Database for Gender Wage Gap

  • by: Thao Dinh
  • recipient: The United States House of Representatives

The WAGE Project, a grassroots organization promoting equal treatment for women in the workplace, found that, “A young woman graduates from high school this year and goes straight to work at $20,000 a year. Over her lifetime, she will make $700,000 less than the young man graduating with her.” With so many families struggling to support themselves, these lost dollars would have been an immense help in bettering their living conditions. The issue of equal treatment in the workplace is about more than just female disempowerment; it’s also about families being able to support themselves.

The New York State Equality Coalition (NYSPEC) writes that,“Women head more than 1,000,000 households in New York, and more than 63% of working mothers in New York are primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners.” The NYSPEC also found that women would not be the only ones benefiting from higher pay, adding that “eliminating the wage gap would provide crucial income to nearly 280,000 New York families living in poverty. In New York, more than 26% of women-headed households live below the poverty level.” If women were paid more, men would also benefit because they would not need to spend more time working to make up for their wives’ lower wages.  These statistics are insightful to the plight of women that work both menial jobs and even women with government positions.  However these statistics will remain the norm if we do not act and make significant revisions to our current political landscape.  

The crux of the problem is that many women do not even recognize that they are being discriminated against, and are therefore incapable of taking steps to ensure that they are receiving equal pay for similar works. Not to mention, women who seek to expose pay discrimination against them by confronting their employees doesn't gave the legislative supports that will protect them from unlawful contract termination, despite the numerous legislatures put in to place in the past 50 years, since the Equal Pay Act of 1963. Take the case of New York Times' female editor Jill Abramson for example: she was fired for confronting the board about the the discrepancies between her wage and her precessors', who were earning more for the same job content. It is evident that the government is not enforcing laws that have already been established. If that is the case, then what is the use of a law that is only practical on paper, that did nothing to rectify the people's suffering? It is time for the government to take a more agressive stand on the matter of women's right. It is time for them to act.  

This proposal will maintain that the United States' government will oversee the establishment of commission within the Department of Labor dedicated to evaluating whether or not a workplace is meeting the equal treatment requirements. Under a company’s consent, the organization would examine employee recordings to see if workers with similar job contents are getting paid the same amount. This test could be called the, “Equal Treatment Evaluation,” or the “ETE” for short. If it meets ETE’s specifications, hirers may use the statement that “this company passes the ETE” for advertising to attract employees and consumers. Since the commission is run by the government, they can incorporate tax benefits as an incentive to apply. This way, not only workers of similar positions would get the same wages, but it would also accommodate the company’s fluctuation in profit since it can access both tax benefits and opportunity to better its image as a pro-equity association.

Please help support our cause. We truly believe that this will make a difference for the women and the family who are victims of this systemic prejudice. 

The time has come for us to stand up and defend for justice. The time has come for us to disregard the obsolete framework of traditional gender roles that denies women of their most basic rights. The time has come for us to tear away the masks of apathy and lend a hand to families in need − the weary fathers suffocating under the weight of extra expenses, the helpless mothers swept under by the turbulent tide of corporate greed that erodes away not just the dimes in their pockets but their freedom as well, and the crying children who, afraid of the monsters in the dark turn to an empty wall in search for the faded contours of working parents. The time has come...

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