In the most recent gubernatorial debate in Billings, Rick Hill blamed women for the fact that we get paid less than men for doing the same exact job. He said we just need more training because we are not “career ready,” and that he doesn’t believe a policy change to fix the problem is needed.
On average, full-time working women earn just 77 cents for every dollar a man earns–which adds up to $431,000 less for each of us over our lifetimes. That’s a wage gap that exists regardless of personal choices like education or occupation.
Even when you factor in that women are more likely to leave the workforce when they have children or work in positions that allow flexibility to care for kids over wages, studies have found no other way to explain at least some of the gap than discrimination. As the Washington Post reports:
When such circumstances are factored in — along with race and other demographic data — about 40 percent of the gender wage gap is still unaccounted for, says Ariane Hegewisch of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), citing a 2007 study by Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn.
That means that women earn 91 cents for every dollar, as compared to men, due to factors that have nothing to do with life choices — a difference that many researchers identify as discrimination.
As the Montana AFL-CIO points out on their Facebook page, this wage gap has real life consequences. Women make up nearly half the workforce. When women bring home less money each day, it means they have less for the everyday needs of their whole families.