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Daniel Oshri

Ms. DeWinne & Mrs. Paolino

Writing & Research

21 December 2020

Equal Pay for Men and Women 

Equal pay based on gender is one of the most controversial topics in the United States. It

is a subject that is heavily discussed and holds extremely strong opinions from many people.

There are main arguments about this topic which include sides which are either for or against the

pay gap between men and women. This topic is debated heavily in the workforce as well as in

athletics. Men and women should receive equal pay if they are demonstrating equal work ethics

because favoring one gender over another is wrong.

The article “Equal Pay for Equal Work” discusses the discrimination that happens in the

workforce. In 2014, President Obama stated, “women make up about half our workforce, but

they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns” (Duke). The article also mentioned that the

average woman who works full time, in the same profession and has the same education as a

male employee would still earn less than the man. President Obama signed the “Paycheck

Fairness Act” to help protect people against workforce discrimination so that this stops

happening in the future. The article mentioned an example of this unfairness when it stated, “For

all Democratic Senate staffers, men made an average of $5,500 more annually than women''

(Duke). This suggests that even in the “high” job positions like in the Senate, women would still

earn less than their male co-worker. The article also discusses that because men are more

dominant in certain fields than women this may explain why women get paid less, which is

unfair. 
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The article titled “Women Are More Productive Than Men, According to New Research”

states that there has been some progress in recent years as far as equal pay in the workplace. In

the past, women made far less than what men make for the same amount of work. However,

there is still much progress to be made. Today, women earn about 81.8 percent of what men earn

for the same work, despite evidence that women are often more productive in the workplace than

men (Berman). Hive is a research platform that works with large companies. The company

conducted research to see whether men or women are more productive. They were able to gain

information from over 3,000 working men and women. According to the study, women work 10

percent harder than men. They found that both men and women complete about 66 percent of

their assigned work (Berman). However, it was found that women are actually assigned 10

percent more work than men. The fact that women achieve the same amount of their assigned

work as men but are assigned more work proves that women are more productive. If this is true,

why should men be paid more than women? Another article mentions that women “are now

better educated than men, have nearly as much work experience and are equally likely to pursue

many high-paying careers. No longer can the gap be dismissed with pat observations that women

outnumber men in lower-paying jobs” (Miller). The article also mentions that findings in a study

conducted with Asaf Levanon, of the University of Haifa in Israel, and Paul Allison of the

University of Pennsylvania, suggested that when women move into occupations in large numbers

the jobs eventually start paying less. The article also described how changes in gender effects

wages. The field of recreation, which went from mostly male to female from 1950 to 2000

started declining in hourly wages by 57 percent. The article states, “The same thing happened

when women in large numbers became designers (wages fell 34 percentage points),

housekeepers (wages fell 21 percentage points) and biologists (wages fell 18 percentage points)”
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(Miller). The article stresses that in “fields where men are the majority, the median pay is $962 a

week — 21 percent higher than in occupations with a majority of women” (Miller). It is beyond

unfair that wages keep declining when women begin to take over some jobs.  

In addition to unfair pay in the workforce, there have been numerous examples of this in

athletics. Many soccer fans across America are very passionate about the subject of equal pay. In

2016 the United States National Women’s Team (USNWT) sued US Soccer for gender

discrimination. They argued that they are paid about a quarter of what the United States National

Men’s Team gets. A New York Times article reported that in 2015, the year of the FIFA

Women’s World Cup, the USWNT played 110 games, while the men played only 76 games.

Although the women earned wages for the extra 34 games that men did not play, the women had

to win these 34 games to make an equal amount as the men did for less games (Brown). In

addition, during March of 2019, the USWNT filed a claim to the US District Court for the

Central District of California. This was months after the US team failed to qualify for the 2018

World Cup. Federal Judge R. Gary Klausner dismissed the USWNT's argument over getting

lower pay than the U.S. men's team (Cater). The US women then went to win over the

Netherlands in the 2019 tournament. The score was 2-0. This win gained support for their claim

and grew awareness of what was going on. The crowd cheered the team's victory in France

which erupted into a chant of "equal pay, equal pay!" In addition, during the World Cup in 2015,

the women received $75,000 each for winning. However, even if the four top women had

combined the money they each received it would not even be close to what each male player

receives. Each male player would receive $400,000 if they had won the same game (Stoffers). In

fact, the captain of the women’s soccer team, Carli Lloyd stated, “When we started to see the

men’s contracts and saw the differences in pay it really opened our eyes” (Stoffers). This
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suggests that there is a major difference in pay between male and female athletes and it is not

fair. This unfair pay does not only happen in soccer, in fact it happens in tennis and basketball as

well. In fact, out of any other major sport, men and women are paid the closest amount in tennis,

and even that is a significant difference. In the Western and Southern Open in Ohio it was found

that tennis player Roger Federer received $731,000 for winning while female player Serena

Williams received $495,000 for winning (Stoffers). This is considered as the most equal out of

any other major sport. The difference in amount between Roger and Serena is so large that it is

not fair to the female player. The article by Stoffers also mentions the differences in basketball

salaries for women and males. The average base salary for the Women’s Pro Basketball League

(WNBA) was $77,000 while the salary for the Men’s Pro Basketball League (NBA) was $5.8

million. Additionally, the WNBA star Candace Parker earns the league’s maximum amount of

$111,500 per year, while NBA star LeBron James earns $31 million a year (Stoffers). 

Although many around America believe in equal pay for equal work, some also have

strong opinions on the pay gap between men and women. Some suggest that the reason that one

gender gets more money over the other is because they satisfy the market more. For example, the

article suggested the “top 10 female fashion models earn 10 times what their male counterparts

do” and this is because they satisfy the market better (Duke). The article also mentioned that

heavyweight boxers and male athletes earn more money also because they satisfy the market

more (Duke). Although this isn't necessarily fair, the reason that some genders get more money

is due to the audience. Additionally, in sports, some argue that the reason men get paid more than

women is because they are more fit, have better agility, better skill, and are overall more

interesting to watch. The article mentions, “There is no argument that men are stronger than

women. It’s a well-documented biological difference. It’s why we have separate teams for men
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and women” (Elsesser). People who agree with the pay gap believe that men are more physical

and should in fact be paid more. 

Overall, discrimination based on gender is a major issue in the United States still to this

day. There are many arguments about who is correct in this, however, women and men should be

paid the same because they both work equally as hard and one gender should not be favored over

the other.
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Work Cited

Berman, R. (2018). Women are more productive than men, according to new research. Retrieved
December 19, 2020, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/10/women-are-more-
productive-than-men-at-work-these-days

Brown, E. (2020). The Equal Pay Debate in US Soccer, Fully Explained! Retrieved December
19, 2020, from https://theforefword.org/599/sports/the-equal-pay-debate-in-us-soccer-fully-
explained/

Cater, F. (2020, May 02). Federal Judge Dismisses U.S. Women's Soccer Team's Equal Pay
Claim. Retrieved December 19, 2020, from
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/02/849492863/federal-judge-dismisses-u-s-womens-soccer-
team-s-equal-pay-claim

Duke, Selwyn. "Equal pay for equal work means paying men more: though it is often claimed
that men make more money than women, once experience, hours worked, and job types are
figured in, men's and women's wages are comparable." The New American, vol. 30, no. 10,
19 May 2014, p. 25+. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/A370752234/GPS?u=spri26149&sid=GPS&xid=698f9936.
Accessed 19 Dec. 2020.

Elsesser, K. (2020, March 11). U.S. Soccer Says Women Don't Deserve Equal Pay Because
They Have Less Skill. Retrieved December 19, 2020, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2020/03/11/us-soccer-says-women-dont-
deserve-equal-pay-because-they-have-less-skill/?sh=2e083c4e6bb0

Miller, C. (2016, March 18). As Women Take Over a Male-Dominated Field, the Pay Drops.
Retrieved December 19, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/upshot/as-
women-take-over-a-male-dominated-field-the-pay-drops.html

Stoffers, Carl. "Equal pay for equal play? As women's sports become more popular, female
athletes are demanding to be paid like their male counterparts." New York Times Upfront,
vol. 149, no. 7, 9 Jan. 2017, p. 16+. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/A477640951/GPS?u=spri26149&sid=GPS&xid=b406274d.
Accessed 19 Dec. 2020.