Here’s a little takeaway regarding workplace pay in the United States that is both a bit ironic and perplexing.
To wit: Although a PEW Research Center survey stresses that legions of Americans “see equal pay as central to gender equality,” that salutary on-the-job outcome is far from routinely realized in America’s work venues.
In fact, it continues to be the case that pay inequity disfavoring women remains a stubborn workplace reality year after year, despite minor inroads being made.
We spotlighted that base unfairness in a recent blog post at the Devadoss Law Firm. We underscored in our April 19 entry the continuing “material variance in paycheck amounts for male and female workers.”
There is no sugarcoating that reality. We duly termed it “broad-based theft.”
And it persists.
Consider this: The wage-based gender gap close to a generation ago resulted in men being paid on average about 16% more than the take-home pay received by women workers.
Fast forward to 2020 and the results are … about the same.
That might materially signify a few things. Progress is not one of them. PEW researchers say that “it would take an extra 42 days of work for women to earn what men did in 2020.” No reasonable person can consider that fair. We submit that it renders the above-cited “theft” designation a flat truth.
Clearly there is much work remaining to be done on the labor front to yield real progress in the workplace pay sphere. Questions or concerns regarding any matter focused on gender-based pay inequity can be addressed to a knowledgeable and diligent employment law legal team.