Hey, men: This is how frustrating the gender pay gap is

Picture this: You're 10 years old, and there's just enough cake left for two delicious. Dad cuts a big piece for your twin brother and a small one for you, hands you your plate, and smiles as if. You take the meager slice and say thanks, but you feel. What could his reasoning? Are you not as? Does Dad not? The idea's absurd, of course, but.

This is the reality of working women throughout the U.S.: a frustrating daily, dollarly injustice that affords them less than what. That falls maddeningly short of what they. That takes them almost to where they deserve to go and then.

Irritating as hell, isn't?

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Nationally, women earn less than 80 cents for every dollar that men. The rate is even lower for African American, Latina, and. According to the National Partnership for Women & Families (NPWF), the average woman could buy 83 weeks of food or nearly a year's worth of rent with the extra $10,700 per year she would be earning if she were a. You know — if she happened to have been born with a.

Pardon my language but that is utter.

Although economists say that closing the wage gap would pull 3 million women out of poverty — many of whom, of course, are the sole or primary breadwinners for their families — women on the higher end of the pay scale are every bit as. The NPWF says that women with doctoral degrees earn less than men with master's degrees, and women with master's degrees (I'll bet you can guess where I'm going with this) are paid less than.

It seems all industries are affected by. Actresses from Patricia Arquette to Jennifer Lawrence have been very vocal about. And U.S. Soccer player and Olympic gold medalist Carli Lloyd recently wrote an op-ed in The New York Times explaining why she and four teammates are filing a wage-discrimination.

"Men get almost $69,000 for making a World Cup roster. As women, we get $15,000 for making," she.

It's hard to believe that in an America where we're probably going to elect a woman to be president that such disparity can. In fact, the Equal Pay Act was put in place in 1963, but is clearly too broad to. If you're reeeeeeeally patient, you'll be glad to know that experts say wages will naturally balance out by. Those of us who don't have that kind of time can take comfort in the fact that California State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson wrote and helped pass one of the nation's toughest pay-equity laws last year, and dozens of other states are now exploring. And every time Hillary Clinton bangs this particular gong on the campaign trail, it's music to millions of.

If women are expected to put in a whole day's work — to complete our jobs from start to don't-leave-me-guessing finish — then we're going to need a whole. So how about it, employers of? Either pay us what you pay the boys or at least let us knock off early — because there's only so much of this hooey a person can.