“Honestly, I don’t understand what there is to argue about,” Matthew stated, shrugging. He acted as if his opinion was the only one that mattered.
“Matthew, there is a lot to argue about. You say the gender pay gap doesn’t exist, but it obviously does! Did you know that a woman only earns 77 cents for every dollar that a man does? Do you think that isn’t a gap?” Sophia argued, pausing the television and setting down the remote.
To any bystander, this would seem like a fiery debate. To Sophia and Matthew, this is just a regular occurrence. Every day they would argue about different things; it was like a game to them.
Matthew sighed, shaking his head. “Sophia, you just don’t get it, do you? The gender pay gap isn’t real,” he said, staring
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“Forty percent of the wage gap can’t be explained by occupation, work experience, race, or union membership,”
“That’s not true. Something can explain it all. Also, another reason why it doesn’t exist is that women choose lower-paying jobs. If they didn’t want to be paid less, they should have chosen a higher-paying job.” Matthew reasoned.
Sophia furrowed her eyebrows. “Seriously? The lower-paying jobs aren’t lower-paying just because, they’re lower-paying because they’re female-dominated fields. Those fields are often less compensated than male-dominated fields,” she finished, crossing her arms.
Matthew pursed his lips. “Okay, but even if they do under-compensate those fields, women take time off work for motherhood anyways. That’s the reason for the ‘pay gap, ' as you call it,” he said, using quotation marks. “If they didn’t take time off to take care of children, they would have a higher income. They miss vital pay raises while they’re gone,”
“First of all, women don’t usually leave the workforce for children. Second of all, if they do leave to take care of their children, when they come back there’s a 4 percent decrease in their pay. It’s unexplained,” Sophia retorted, standing