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I'm an 18-year old girl from Holland.

First of all, I love the site!! I was wondering what can we do to make sure women and men get paid the same amount of money when they do exacty the same job?? I'm sorry for my bad English, but I hope you understand my question. Is there a possibility there could be a law which says that women and men should get paid the same way.

Isn`t there a way to change something here?

   

There is a law that says that workplaces can't discriminate against women and men in the same positions. However, sadly many workplaces circumvent this by just slightly tweaking the job descriptions so it appears the positions are different jobs.

More importantly, you ask how to ensure that this doesn't happen. I think that we need to hold workplaces accountable. Not only have the laws around, but have monthly check ups of sorts on employers. Also, we need to maybe look at skills and other markers as a means for salary, not necessarily title. And we need to ensure that women themselves feel empowered to ask for that. Women become partly responsible because they don't know how to ask for more, or even to imagine that they are worth it.

There are groups like the National Partnership for Work and Families, Catalyst, and the National Committee on Pay Equity, which are working toward these same goals.

Good luck. -- Amy