NowComment
2-Pane Combined
Comments:
Full Summaries Sorted

Equal Pay Proposal

Author: Guadalupe, Anthony, and Nathan

Dear Business Owners:

Did you know that in most cases, women get paid less than men? For example, for every dollar that a man gets paid, women get paid 79 cents. But, depending on race as well, women get paid even less. Black women earn 60 cents and Hispanic women get paid 55 cents (The Washington Post). We have chosen the topic of equal pay because it is a topic that isn’t really known, but affects many people in the United States, especially women. More specifically, we have chosen to write to YOU all because you control how much your employees get paid, and isn’t unequal pay a little bit, well, unequal? There shouldn’t be differences in pay based on gender, since women endeavor, if not endeavor more than men. Everyone knows that times right now are different, and that viewpoints are finally equalizing, So why not help out and finally end racism and sexism? Equal pay won’t end sexism, but it can for sure help end sexism by not making women seem irrelevant. A target that we have in this fight for equal pay is business owners, since they have the power to change the salaries of their employees. Although business owners can have the most change, people with power can influence business owners, changing their decisions. An example of how unequal pay is between men and women is how much women are paid compared to men. The article explains, “In 2015, Emily Schuerman discovered, by accident, that she was getting paid the same salary as her lower-ranking male assistant.” (The Christian Science Monitor). The quote is significant because it shows how Emily, who is someone of a higher rank in the job where she works, is getting paid the exact same as her subordinate assistant. This shows how the business’ owners think of how to pay their employees, paying women less because they have “less power,” connecting to the Hegemonic Ideology mentioned earlier. To conclude, equal pay is an issue that can be resolved through business owners, since they have the choice to change salaries. Equal pay will also resolve some sexism, since the viewpoints of almost everyone are changing, especially in 2018. It is irrelevant that there is still discrimination in 2018.

The issue that is going on right now is that women get paid less than men when they work the same which only causes more sexism. What caused the issue was the idea that men are better than women. The oppressed group are women and especially women of color. The community believes that what is happening is ok and that what women get paid is enough. Men and people that own the job benefit from this inequity. The levels of oppression are ideological and institutional because it is an idea that men should be paid more than women and the government is fine with this idea. The allies are men and the opponents are women who don’t get paid the same as how men get paid. Now there is an act that says that employers can’t justify paying women less than men. This act is called the Equal Pay Act. An article written by Danielle Paquette explains, “A federal appeals court ruled Monday that employers cannot justify paying a woman less than a man doing similar work because of her salary history – a move advocates say will help close the wage gap between the sexes”(Paquette). This proves that there is no explanation that women get paid less than men. This is called discrimination against women. Another example is why women are discriminated against is, “Feminists have made the workplace worse by waging an ideological campaign to portray working women as a victimized class, discriminated against in pay and persistently preyed on by male oppressors”(O’Beirne). This quote also proves that women get degrade because of this ideological. It is a belief that they have gained from past ancestors. It is a belief that men are better than women because both can do the same work which deserves the same payment. Equal payment is necessary to stop this ideology and help stop sexism.

There have been movements in the past to try to make a change for equal pay. An example is a movement that happened in 1883. An article explained, ¨In 1883, communications across the country ground to a halt when the majority of the workers for Western Union Telegraph Company went on strike¨(Alter). This quote proves that there have been issues with equal pay since the 1800’s. There are still fights for this issue going on today. There are still people that want justice for women because they deserve the same pay as men. Furthermore, another example of another movement that has been going on is from 2014 and 2018. The article explains, ¨On Tuesday, April 10, 2018, Americans come together to raise awareness for Equal Pay Day, which was launched by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE). In 2014, just five years after President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Republicans blocked a bill called the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would make it illegal for employers to penalize employees who discuss their salaries and would require the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to collect pay data from employers (Morad)”. This quote proves the point that the discrimination against women has been going for a long time and the fight against this is still going on to this day. Meaning Equal pay has still not passed since many of us, mostly women, are still fighting for it.

Our plan is to create slides to teach the middle schoolers about unequal pay and then give them a survey to see what they learned about our presentation. Along with the presentation, we will also be joining 6 other teams that are handling different issues like ours to have a week of movement. That means that in a week, each day we will wear a different color of clothing that supports our cause, for example, equal pay will be purple/white and Black Lives Matters will be yellow/black.

In conclusion, to raise awareness about equal pay, we will present to 5 middle school advisories and show them why it matters, and how we can change it as students.

If you will like to become a proponent of our proposal and want to support us, please follow us on the hashtag #equalpayproposal.

Annotated Bibliography

Alter, Charlotte. “Equal Pay Day: Here’s the History of the Fight for Equal Pay for Women.” Time, Time, 14 Apr. 2015, time.com/3774661/equal-pay-history/

This source is about what the government has done in the pass to make sure that everyone gets paid the same. This source is credible because it is a recent article that includes a lot of great evidence about the past and equal payment.

“Equal Pay & the Wage Gap Archives.” NWLC, nwlc.org/issue/equal-pay-and-the-wage-gap/.

This article explains the issue and what are some things that we can do to try to solve this issue. This also explains how much more men get paid than women. This source is credible because it is asking for help from the community in order to create a change. It also educates the community about the issue and what can be done to fix the issue.

Gillin, Joshua. “MARCO RUBIO CALLED EQUAL PAY FOR WOMEN ‘A WASTE OF TIME,’ PATRICK MURPHY SAYS.” Tampa Bay Times [St. Petersburg, FL], 18 Oct. 2016. Opposing Viewpoints In Context,http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A467289221/OVIC?u=oak_335&sid=OVIC&xid=adf4f341. Accessed 1 May 2018.
This source

“On Equal Pay Day, How Far Have We Come?” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, www.nbcnews.com/know-your-value/feature/equal-pay-day-how-far-have-we-come-ncna864471.

This article is about equal pay and it specifically it talks about some strikes that people went on for equal pay justice. This source is credible because the main topic is talking about equal pay and how the white house or government would disagree or agree with equal pay justice that people want.

Paquette, Danielle. “It’s 2016, and Women Still Make Less for Doing the Same Work as Men.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 8 Mar. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/08/its-2016-and-women-still-make-less-for-doing-the-same-work-as-men/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.e43ee8fa0aa4.

This article speaks about the differences between men and women, specifically speaking about the gender pay gap. The article was written during International Women’s Day when the author got an email speaking about how women will never get paid the same as men. This source is credible because it is from the Washington Post, a cite that has been proved credible. Also, the article references their sources, proving that they are not plagiarizing and shows that their evidence is credible.

Velasco, Schuyler. “To narrow gender pay gap, one state tries something completely new.” Christian Science Monitor, 6 Aug. 2016. Opposing Viewpoints In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A460090420/OVIC?u=oak_335&sid=OVIC&xid=f0862f12. Accessed 1 May 2018.

Tags:

DMU Timestamp: April 27, 2018 17:09





Image
0 comments, 0 areas
add area
add comment
change display
Video
add comment

Quickstart: Commenting and Sharing

How to Comment
  • Click icons on the left to see existing comments.
  • Desktop/Laptop: double-click any text, highlight a section of an image, or add a comment while a video is playing to start a new conversation.
    Tablet/Phone: single click then click on the "Start One" link (look right or below).
  • Click "Reply" on a comment to join the conversation.
How to Share Documents
  1. "Upload" a new document.
  2. "Invite" others to it.

Logging in, please wait... Blue_on_grey_spinner