Cash is Queen

By Audrey Hwang

In a perfect world, men and women would be considered as equals. No sexism, no sexual assault, no belittlement.  

The world we live in today is far from perfect. But one of the largest issues that face women is the uphill battle concerning economics. Every person has heard of the wage gap, but no steps have been taken to diminish it. Action needs to be taken, and it should have happened years ago. 

Issues surrounding pay for women has always been iffy, but the truth is that they are underpaid for their labor. On average, women working full-time, year-round are paid 84% of what men are paid. In just 2023, black women lost $42.7 billion and Hispanic women lost $53.3 billion in wages as compared to white men, even if they were in the same occupation. When you take a step back and look at the big picture, it's not just a one cent difference. It's thousands of dollars. 

For women who finish college and continue on to graduate school, the merit of an extra degree isn't enough to overcome sexism in the workplace. The value of a man is perceived highly where as women are always the second option. 

While men complain about minimum wage, women fight to earn the minimum wage. 

But the problem goes further than just the difference in wage, its the impact it has on the way they live, especially for single mothers. 

With the number of single moms being 5x the number of single dads at 15 million in the United States, working two jobs and juggling side gigs is only enough to pay her rent, keep her full and make sure she has clothes. For that single mom, she lives paycheck to paycheck, struggling to fund her own life. If our world were perfect, she wouldn't worry about getting to her next job on time because she would be paid equally as her male counterparts. 

Even in the larger corporate world, the struggle for equality exists. Women are less likely to get promoted than men, even if the women had better qualities and had higher potential. So for the young girl, whose dream is to climb the corporate ladder, she has a steep hill to climb, a hill with loose rocks and slippery mud. Whereas for men, it's not a hill they have to climb. It's a staircase made of polished marble. 

For our future generations, it's our responsibility to instill change to better the lives of your sons and daughters. You start that by ensuring that your daughters are paid the same as your sons. The way to do that is to eliminate gender bias within the workplace itself to strive for equality. Wage should be based on the quality of your work, not your gender.