Equal Pay Day

As of yesterday, I have attended the annual Equal Pay Day rally at the Daily Plaza in downtown Chicago. The Equal Pay Day is when women and men gather to rally against unequal pay and gender discrimination.

It is peaceful rally to demand a more equal playing feild for women who do the same work as men. Even though the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963, the gap between equal pay is still at an unfair balance. For every dollar a man makes a women makes 77 cents. It is really sad to hear that after years for fighting equal rights, inequality still resides.

Although, improvments have been made. About 50% of the workforce is run by women and the gap is starting to close. Yet if we want to close the gap completely, we must first understand what work is about.

In the resturant bussiness, I have seen women who work just the same as men. They are tough, resiliant and respectable in culinary standards. In the culinary world, it dosent really matter what gender, race or background you come from. If you caan buture a chicken in five minutes, then you can be part of the crew. It may not be like that in every resturant, but for some it is the right way to run a bussiness. If other industries have that same mind set of work place fairness as those resturants, then it could be a better world.

It really does show that issues such as pay realy does affect everyone. One of the big worries that resturants go though is the fear of unequal pay and finances. For servers especially because they only receive $2.13 per hour with tips. It is a sad truth but, that is why orginizations such as the R.O.C exist because we want to change the world for the better. We want future generations to learn about equal pay, it may not happen right away but it will happen over time. If you want more information about womens equal rights and fair pay practices, visit the AAUW website (link is below).

For now, I bid all of you a-do and support equal pay. Thank You.

www.aauw.org