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Student K.A.
Mrs. Martin
Pre-Ap English
15 December 2015
TED Talk Wage Gap
Im assuming by this point you all have at least limited
knowledge on the inequality between genders, but one thing has not
been mentioned yet is the unequal pay between men a women. Im
also assuming you already have heard about this, which is
understandable since it is coming up not only in standard workplaces,
but legal offices and courts, households, and classrooms. Now, I am not
going to stand up and drone on, spitting out fact after fact after fact,
but I will clear something up right away; yes the inequality exists and
yes the 21 cents less that women earn compared to men makes a
difference. But just how much?
To begin, I think we should be familiar with the term wage gap,
which is the term used to describe this unjust inequality. In my opinion,
though, I think wage gap is more like wage crap and a wage slapin-the-face. On average, women earn 79% for every dollar a man
earns, stated by the American Association of University Women, but it
can be quite difficult to see just how big of difference that makes when
looking at it on such a small scale. Lets consider a place where all
working men and women were paid at the end of year instead of

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having a weekly or monthly salary. All men are to be paid $60,000, and
women are to be payed 79% less of that, so $47,400, which is $12,600
less. That is the difference the 21 cents in terms of a single year. Still
having trouble seeing how much it is worth? Consider all the men
decided to spend the $12,600 they have on top of women on
something that is considered a luxury. In one years earnings, they
could buy forty-two 64GB iPhone 6ss. In two years; a 2015 Ford
Mustang with $1400 to spare. In five years; thirty-one 15-inch
upgraded Macbook Pros with over $1000 to spare, and in ten years,
you could afford not only a Tesla, but two 18-karat gold Apple Watches,
each valued at $10,000, six 128GB iPad Air 2s, and enough money left
over for over two and a half years of Spotify premium, which is $10 a
month. And lastly, in 15 years, you could easily afford a Bugatti. If
anyone here likes cars and knows about Bugattis, they know about
their sleek and sporty design. They might also know about their
astronomical price of 1.7 million dollars. On top of that, 1583 years of
Spotify premium. Even without these luxuries and goods, the extra
money men make could be invested into banks or stocks, further
flourishing their wealth. Not only this, but proven by Legal Momentum,
over 80% of all single parents in the United States are women, leading
to another gash in womens funds underneath mens since the cost of
raising a child is $310,000, as stated by Huffington Post.

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Why is this happening? It isnt that women arent working as
hard, in fact, women have been proven in a study conducted by
Ponemon Institute proves that women not only work harder but for a
longer period of time than men. When given distractions, women will
work an average of 81% of the given work time, whereas men will work
an average of 76% of the day. Not only that, but when given the option
to quit and walk away from work, only 37% of women stepped away
while 52% of the men did. Why are women working harder and yet
being paid less?
So how much of a difference does that 21 cents make? A huge
one. Money influences everything from social status to longevity , and
there is no denying that there is an unfair gap between men and
women simply based on who they are. Although, why do we continue
to belittle women by stating they are 79% of men? This is giving them
a title of being the lesser earner and often leads the mind the believe
that women are working 79% as hard as men, which as recently states,
is certainly not the truth. Instead, we should be equaling women to a
whole value, so 100%. Sure, this isnt going to solve the problem of
wage gap because men will then be set a rate of 121%, but the value
of over 100% shows the over-inflation of how a certain gender is given
an unfair and unearned upper hand in the economical world. Truly, it
shouldnt be about women being lesser than men but men being
given unfair privilege. Closing the wage gap may seem like an

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impossible task and there will always be people who offer a
disadvantage to the equality, but it is time we no longer look down on
others; the person next you is from Earth, and so is the person across
from you and the people in the class next to us; just deal with it.
Despite laws and acts put in place that prohibit the discrimination of
women in the workplace and paying women less, the fight continues
on today, and yes, people are going to scream It is impossible! but
those same people were the ones that said putting a man on the moon
was impossible and yet, in 1969 the United States achieved just that.
Humanity has being proving the so-called impossible possible for all
of history, and it continues today. We can do it; it just starts with
realizing how much of a difference 21 cents makes, and from there, we
can silence the screams of those who have put us down for centuries,
hushing them when we finally achieve the equality we all deserve,
because after all, equality never hurt anybody.

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Works Cited
Ackerman, Elise. "Superiority of Female Workers Confirmed: Study
Finds Women Really Do Work Longer And Harder Than Men."
Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 24 Feb. 2013. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.
Hill, Catherine, Ph.D. "The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap (Fall
2015)." AAUW: Empowering Women Since 1881. American
Association of University Women, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.
"Single Parenthood in the United States A Snapshot (2014 Edition)."
Single Parenthood in the United States A Snapshot (2014
Edition) 2014 (2014): 1-4. Legal Momentum. Legal Momentum,
Mar. 2014. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.
Thomas, Emily. "This Is How Much It Costs To Raise A Child In The U.S."
The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 18 Aug. 2014. Web.
15 Dec. 2015.