The Hidden Sexism Lurking Behind the Pay Gap
By: Maya Dusenbery
Today is Equal Pay Day, which marks how far into the year the average American woman must work to earn what her male counterpart earned last year. The pay gap, for full-time, year-round workers, currently stands at 78 cents to the dollar and hasn’t narrowed for the past decade. At this rate, according to a recent report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, we won’t achieve pay equality until 2058.
Of course, in a nation of 300 million diverse people with staggering economic inequality, exact earnings are determined by a complex interaction between individual choices and structural forces.