Tomorrow Is Equal Pay Day

It's hard to believe, that in 2008, there is still a large gap between men's and women's wages. According to the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE), Equal Pay Day, observed each year on a Tuesday in April, "symbolizes how far into the year a woman must work to earn as much as a man earned the previous year." So, a woman must work about 15 months and three weeks to earn what a man earns in 12 months. Equal Pay Day is always observed on a Tuesday, which is also symbolic. In order to earn what a man earns in a week, a woman must work until Tuesday of the following week. The pay gap is even greater for women of color, according to NCPE.

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 makes it unlawful to pay unequal wages to a man and a woman doing the same work. While an employer can use a worker's experience, education and job responsibilities to determine salary, he or she cannot take into account one's gender. With that law in place, why, then, is there still such a large gender-based wage gap? Do more woman than men opt to attain lower levels of education or do they decide to go into lower paying fields? Why do fields in which more woman than men work pay less than others? Are woman passed over for higher paying jobs or are fewer women than men allowed to rise through the ranks of corporations, i.e., the glass ceiling, thereby keeping women's salaries down? Is it that a huge number of employers are not abiding by the Equal Pay Act? These are some things to think about tomorrow as we wear red to raise awareness about the pay gap. Red symbolizes how far women and those in minority groups are "in the red" with their pay.