Economics of Race and Gender Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Economics of Race and Gender - Term Paper Example The very reason that Equal Pay Day is being recognized by the Bethlehem branch of the American Association of University Women at Moravian College on 20th of April 2010 in the Haupert Union Building on the North Campus points towards the current need to bridge the wage gap between the salaries of men and women. Funds were raised by holding a bake sale selling cookies in 77 cents to women and same cookies in $1 to women because according to the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics, women working full time earn 77 cents against each dollar earned by men. According to Susan S. McNamara, a retired college administrator of Bethlehem Township and president of AAUW, the wage gap has decreased the real median income of women by more than half million dollars in comparison to men since 1960. This wage gap is more widened in the case of minority women. In comparison to white men, minority African-American women earn 67 cents while African-American men earn 78 cents on the dollar. Hispanic women earn even lower, 58 cents. The reason for selecting 20th of April as Equal Pay Day was to know how much more time women require in a year to earn equal to what men earned the previous year – about additional four months! A number of facilities have been gained through legislation on making of Family and Medical Leave Act and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act besides favorable policies like flextime and telecommuting, which are equally beneficial for employed women and their employers but in the matter of equal paychecks, women still are far behind men. From an economic point of view, according to Catherine Hill, the senior research associate at the AAUW Educational Foundation, â€Å"There's a gap here that economists agree cant be explained away by women's choices.