The Gender Pay Gap is a Lie?

The real truth is shocking…

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According to a 2023 report by the Center for American Progress (CAP), women in the United States have cumulatively lost an estimated $61 trillion in wages since 1967 due to the gender pay gap.

Women have been earning the majority of master’s degrees, doctoral degrees, and professional degrees in the United States for several years. On average, women earn about 80 cents for every dollar men earn. This gap varies by race and ethnicity, with women of color generally facing an even larger disparity.

Debunking Myths About Women and Pay Raises

A new study is disputing long-held beliefs about why women earn less than men. For years, the narrative has been that women don’t ask for raises as often as men do, leading to a significant pay gap. But researchers, using a detailed dataset from Australia, have discovered something different: women are just as likely as men to ask for higher salaries.

The study, which surveyed 4,600 employees across 800 workplaces in 2014, found that while women ask for raises just as often as men, they’re less likely to get them. Specifically, women who ask for a raise receive one only 15% of the time.

The researchers concluded that asking for a raise does not guarantee getting one — at least not if you are a woman.

Women ask for raises just as often as men.
Women are less likely to receive a raise when they ask.
Women do not avoid asking for raises due to fear of damaging workplace relationships.

Women in the U.S. consistently earn less than men even though it is somewhat smaller among younger workers — Image courtesy of Twitter (X)

The Impact of Motherhood on Women’s Careers

The massive burden of motherhood also plays a part. Society has not adjusted well to working mothers, they often end up exhausted and broke, still suffering career damage. I don’t know what the answer is but I do think motherhood is disrespected and disregarded at every level.

Some people argue that there are women-dominated industries where women are paid more. Let me clarify: there is no such thing as a “women-dominated industry.” Those you might consider as women-dominated industries merely have a picture or body image of a woman, while in the background, it is the men who operate every industry on this planet.

What’s your take on this? Just because a man can afford to sit for longer hours in the office and a woman can’t because she has to battle a lot of things in her daily life just because she is female? For example, in many countries:

Women are not safe.
If married, they are expected to return home at a specific time and prepare meals for the family.
She can’t stay out late because of doubts from in-laws and husband.
After childbirth, they bear the bulk of childcare responsibilities.

When Hard Work Isn’t Enough

So Don’t try to turn this around with some twisted analogy. This is about women who work just as hard as men and have the same qualifications but are still paid less.

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How would you feel if you were paid less, even though you worked just as hard, if not harder than others, just because of the way you were born? This is not about sports, fashion, or any particular industry. It’s about people who deliver the same results and value to a company while unfairly being paid less.

There is something called the Fair Pay Act, and there was a court ruling that said the statute of limitations for when you’re being paid less than a man, if you’re subject to discrimination, starts before you even know that discrimination is happening.

Effectively, this cuts off your recourse to the courts because if you didn’t know you were being discriminated against, you can’t go after it. How can you seek justice if you didn’t even know you were wronged?

People should be placed in a certain position because of skill and not by any other metric. That’s true equality.

The men who argue that if women were really paid less for the same job, then companies would not hire men, miss the point. The issue arises due to sexist beliefs that women should always be the ones taking care of the kids.

So, maybe the ones who are hiring aren’t entirely to blame because that’s how things have been, but we definitely need to change the mentality that taking care of the kids is primarily a woman’s job and that this should be expected from her.

A Path Toward True Equality

I don’t think businesses should be directly responsible for paying their staff’s parental leave. The businesses should be taxed, and the taxes should pay for parental leave. Making businesses directly responsible places an undue financial burden on smaller businesses, those that create more jobs, those that employ more women — all of which would be counterproductive.

Parental leave is something beneficial for society as a whole. Everyone should be okay with paying taxes for it, just as we are okay paying for infrastructure, why not for something as important as supporting parents?

Giving an explanation about why such things exist doesn’t make it okay. It just means that we’re aware society considers women as baby makers before recognizing them as valuable assets to the economy or society. And with that knowledge in mind, the people in power have decided to turn a blind eye to the matter. Because if you can’t see it, why correct a wrong that doesn’t exist?

Why Female Leadership Matters

Female leadership is very important for young women to progress in their careers. I have had two horrible bosses (both male) who felt entitled to my time. By that, I mean they dumped their work onto me. I worked for 14 hours a day, 6 days a week — 10 hours in the office and 4 hours after reaching home! I barely got appreciation for the work I completed and faced serious micromanagement.

On the other hand, female bosses have actually respected me, bothered to teach me something, and, best of all, they have respected my time. All the bitter men who complain about equal pay have probably been outperformed by smarter and more productive women. That’s why there’s so much insecurity.

The question is, why does society not support women when they give birth to children? Isn’t birthing children a good thing for society? What I’ve seen around me is that women leave their jobs for 3 to 4 years when they have children because the father also doesn’t get any holidays. Daycare is too expensive and fathers aren’t given time off from their jobs, so they can’t help. But they still need money.

As a result, women end up leaving their jobs while their husbands continue to work to raise their children. In one extraordinary case, I saw the father leave his job because his wife earned more. Why don’t we have more affordable daycare for children so that parents can give their time to work without worrying about how their child is being cared for?

There was a study that I read back around 2007 that said women who asked for raises were less likely to receive one than those who didn’t ask. They were also more likely to be seen as “bitchy” and aggressive. Whereas for men, those who asked were more likely to receive a raise.

And of course, women were also less likely than men to receive a raise regardless. So, women are discriminated against by default, and if they try to do something to improve their situation, they are even more aggressively discriminated against and treated as if they’re stepping out of line.

It’s shameful that in 2025, we’re still having conversations about issues like this. It’s a sad reflection of how far we still have to go. As Simone de Beauvoir wisely said

“When society turns a blind eye to the discrimination against women, it marks the beginning of its ruin.”

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