Throughout mankind men and women have always played certain roles. During the earliest days, these roles were extremely polarized with women really having little to no say in just about anything. Over the years this gap between men and women has consistently decreased, we went through the women’s suffrage movement, Roe v Wade, women taking up jobs in World War II, all the way into modern times, in which equality has prevailed. In modern-day America, it would be safe to say that these gender differences have since been abolished, of course, they really can vary from city to city or even household to household, but as a general description for the entire country, the statement holds true. This brings me to question the gender pay gap. We have all heard about it whether it be social media, the news, or just general politics and conversation, but what really is it? Is it real? Are the numbers accurate? Why does it exist? These are questions a myriad of people have asked themselves and have found many different types of answers to.

The gender pay gap is defined as the difference in earnings between men and women (Bleiwis 1). After analyzing the most recent data from 2021 the Census Bureau found that women earned 86 cents for every dollar that men earned. This calculation is provided based on the median annual earnings for men working full-time and women working full-time year-round. This translates to a pay gap of roughly 14 cents in 2021, compared to 2018 which was 18 cents. Pew Research found that "Based on this estimate, it would take an extra 42 days of work for women to earn what men did in 2020" (Barosso, Brown, 1). It is important to note that the wage gaps being calculated by the Census Bureau based on median income as a whole do not necessarily accurately represent an individual woman’s personal experience. Rather it is a very broad way to look at income as a big picture.

With the recent political climate, where the country has become increasingly polarized, it has been ingrained in almost all of our brains that women do make less than men. However, there are many people that simply say the gender pay gap does not exist. It is important to question this, being such a big topic in our life and having such a heavy impact on every man and woman in the workforce. No one should take anything they hear as an undeniable truth without at least looking into things a bit deeper.

Let us take a look at how the gender pay gap is actually calculated. One may think that the gender pay gap takes into consideration many different factors in order to accurately portray the data. Things such as type of occupation, rank in the company, how long one has held their current occupation, education level they had to have attained in order to get the occupation, and hours worked. Unfortunately, this is not the case, even though all of these factors would make sense to take into consideration when having a discussion about salary considering they all contribute to it. Elise Gould summarizes this by stating "But this simple adjustment misses all of the potential differences in opportunities for men and women that affect and constrain the choices they make before they ever bargain with an employer over a wage" (Gould 2). The gender pay gap takes none of these into consideration and there is absolutely no nuance or complexity to any of the statistics provided. It is simply a measure of the average full-time workers' salaries. Life has become much more complicated than a set of averages. What the pay gap is really showing is the differences in career choices between men and women. An example of this is discussed by Mark Perry of AEI "It isn’t that, say, female senior managers, are paid less than male senior managers it’s that there are fewer female senior managers than male. This hugely skews those average figures" (Perry 2)

When we do end up taking into account these additional factors the pay gap actually diminishes to almost nothing. The American Association of University Women conducted a study and found that when you are able to consider and control those factors above the pay gap actually shrinks to only 7 cents to the dollar. This study was also conducted in 2009 when the pay gap was even wider than it is now 13 years later. So, given that it would be safe to assume that now with those variables in control it could be below even 5 cents to the dollar. This is given that "The gender wage gap has narrowed over the years" (Daughtery 1). One source oftentimes can not be taken for full credibility either, but this finding was actually corroborated by the United States Department of Labor which found that the same year the adjusted pay gap was roughly between 5 to 7 cents.

This does bring up the question though what about those last few cents? The truth of the matter is that the pay gap has not entirely been reduced to zero. Could some of this simply be due to a sexist boss that does not believe women should be paid as much as their male counterparts? Maybe. But, if you take a step to think about it if a person really was sexist enough to do that, why would they hire the women in the first place, for they would probably already be under the belief that men would be better suited for their position, to begin with. One possible explanation is that men negotiate their salaries more often than women do. This could be due to the psychological differences between men and women. Men tend to be much more aggressive and combative when getting what they want than women who tend to be more passive and not speak up. One study that took place with 500 women found that there were only 16% of them constantly renegotiated their salaries. Looking at this from a business perspective, why would companies pay any more than they have to? It is also found that 70% of managers expect a salary renegotiation.

This all is in line with the interview conducted with Marianna Page, who is the co-owner of the top small business law firm in Georgia InPrime Legal. During our conversation, she stressed that she had never felt discriminated against or treated unfairly in the workplace. This is also given that she is not only a woman in the male-dominated field of law but also a Puerto Rican immigrant who holds dual citizenship. During our interview, she stated “this is an amazing country, not perfect, but it is the type of place that rewards working hard and working smart. I believe anyone here should be able to make something of themselves if they really want it that badly.”

Whether one wants to believe the gender pay gap is real or not is up to one and their own individual research. What cannot be denied is not only that the pay gap is very inaccurately portrayed, but that does not take away from the fact that there is still gender inequality prevalent in our country. A Glassdoor survey actually found that "seven out of ten people believe that men and women are paid equally for their work" (Hess 1). We are not a perfect package by any means and still have a long way to go when it comes to true equality in America. It will take all of us to raise awareness of certain issues, but where a line needs to be drawn is when statistics like the gender pay gap are used to throw fuel on a fire that does not need to be there. Over time these sexist managers and company owners will be weeded more easily than ever with the use of social media like TikTok where news of unjust practices spread like wildfire. What we need to do is not always take things at face value, and stand together behind one another to face our country's problems.

Barroso, Amanda, and Anna Brown. “Gender Pay Gap in U.S. Held Steady in 2020.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 8 June 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/25/gender-pay-gap-facts/.

Gould, Report • By Elise. “What Is the Gender Pay Gap and Is It Real?: The Complete Guide to How Women Are Paid Less than Men and Why It Can't Be Explained Away.” Economic Policy Institute, 20 Oct. 2016, https://www.epi.org/publication/what-is-the-gender-pay-gap-and-is-it-real/.

Perry, Mark J. “There Really Is No ‘Gender Wage Gap.’ There’s a ‘Gender Earnings Gap ...” There Really Is No ‘Gender Wage Gap.’ There’s a ‘Gender Earnings Gap’ but ‘Paying Women Well’ Won’t Close That Gap, AEIdeas, 31 July 2017, https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/there-really-is-no-gender-wage-gap-there-is-a-gender-earnings-gap-but-paying-women-well-wont-close-that-gap/.

Bleiweis, Robin. “Quick Facts about the Gender Wage Gap.” Center for American Progress, 18 Oct. 2022, https://www.americanprogress.org/article/quick-facts-gender-wage-gap/.

Daugherty, Greg. “The History of the Gender Wage Gap in America.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 25 May 2022, https://www.investopedia.com/history-gender-wage-gap-america-5074898#:~:text=The%20gender%20wage%20gap%20has,every%20dollar%20that%20men%20earn.

Hess, Abigail. “8 Economists on What People Don't Understand about the Gender Pay Gap-and If It Can Actually Be Closed.” CNBC, CNBC, 2 Apr. 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/28/8-economists-on-what-youre-getting-wrong-about-the-gender-pay-gap.html.

Schieder, Jessica, and Elise Gould. “‘Women's Work’ and the Gender Pay Gap: How Discrimination, Societal Norms, and Other Forces Affect Women's Occupational Choices-and Their Pay.” Economic Policy Institute, 20 July 2016, https://www.epi.org/publication/womens-work-and-the-gender-pay-gap-how-discrimination-societal-norms-and-other-forces-affect-womens-occupational-choices-and-their-pay/#epi-toc-1.

Blau, Francine D., and Lawrence M. Kahn. 2017. "The Gender Wage Gap: Extent, Trends, and Explanations." Journal of Economic Literature, 55 (3): 789-865.