The story started with a personal story by LaTerrell Bradford, a member of 9 to 5 Association of Working Women. Because pay discrimination is something that happens to real people in the real world. The story continues with some policy analysis by Linda Meric, the director of the same organization. She explains pay gaps between women and men and white people and people of color to the reporter, Ryan Warner. Ms. Meric highlights the fact that women are punished in the workforce for having children. This interests me because I have lived and worked in a couple of different countries outside of the United States. A pay difference between men and women existed in those countries, but usually not the motherhood difference. Fathers make slightly more than non-fathers because employers see them as slightly more responsible and because employers feel that the extra money is going to support children. The US is one of the few countries where mothers don't get the same bump. In the US, this means that women are not only penalized for the time that they take off, but that their careers do not continue to progress at the same rate as men when they get back to work. It also means that employers see women's pay as less important than men's. Employers do not see themselves as investing in children when they give raises to women. Which is crazy since more of women's pay goes toward supporting children than men's does. |
