Written By: ShiAnn Hicks

Women make about 44.4% of men’s salary. It is even worse in men dominated areas. There are only four occupations in which women’s earnings are higher than men. Those are councilors, teacher assistants, combined food preparation and service workers (including fast food) and sewing machine operation. Things need to change. Fast.

There are still 107 occupations in which women’s salary were 95% of men’s salary. That is a wage gap of at least five cents per dollar earned by men. In 2016, the median gender earnings for female full-time weekly workers was $749. While men full-time workers earned $915 per week. There was an 81.9% difference.

In general, the highest paid occupations have a huge wage gap. While the lowest paid occupations have the lowest wage gap. Six out of ten occupations with lower or women favored salaries have earnings below the median for all workers. Also, male-dominated areas pay more than female-dominated areas with similar skills.

An example of this would be an elementary/middle school teacher. It is a female-dominated field and women get paid $981. Men make $1,126, in a female dominated field men make about 69.3% more than women. Female dominated areas are at 10 out of 20 places, men get paid higher there too.

Another example of this would be men in software developing, application and systems software – a male-dominated field. The men earn $1,863, while women earn $1.553. Both occupations require a bachelors degree.

An important part of eliminating the salary differences is getting rid of occupation segregation. Only four out of twenty most common areas for men and the twenty areas for women overlap. About four of ten actually work in a female-dominated. Almost five of ten men work in male dominated areas. The rest of the 6. 3% of women work in male dominated areas. The rest of the 5.0% of men work in female

Mothers make 71% of what fathers earn. An example of this is that a married mother is a nurse and the father is one too. So the Mother makes 44,000 annually and the father makes $60,000 annually. That is 73.3% of the father’s salary, but if it was a single parent it would be a 70.7% difference. dominated areas.

The worst part of all of this is that white women have to wait 42 years – until 2059 to reach pay equality. For a black woman, the wait would be 2124. But for Hispanic women, they would have to wait til 2248. The gender-wage gap goes by race/ethnicity and by age.

This affects me because when I get older, I will want a job so I can have my own money. And since I am an African American women, and its not 2124, I will get paid less than a man. This really affects me because Wichita has a 20% worse wage equality rate.

Ladies, think about your future. Is your future in jeopardy because the government decides to have the male the dominant species? Young men, do you think these wage differences are fair? Let us know in the comments below or on twitter @teenviewmag