Regressing 60 years

If you are a woman, chances are you are paying more for everything.

When it comes to clothing, expect prices to rise as fabric decreases. A quick comparison of swimwear available online through Target indicates a regularly-priced bikini costs $40, while a pair of regularly-priced man's swim trunks with twice the fabric, will be half the price at $20.

As the shopping spree continues, consider more serious purchases, such as health insurance.

Until tenets of current healthcare legislation come into effect in two years, women under 64 can expect to pay nearly two times more for premiums than a comparably-aged man.

One silver lining for insurance expenditures---on average, females pay 10 to 20 percent less for car insurance premiums than drivers who are male, partially due to lower rates of DWI and moving violations.

It gets worse.

With recent comments about women working only if it does not interfere with cooking dinner and raising children, it appears a 1960s-era view of women in the workplace still exists.

When it comes to earning money for purchases previously discussed, the National Women's Law Center has found full-time, year-round female workers earn 33 cents less for each dollar earned than male workers completing the same job.

As an anonymous Twitter user behind a Big Bird-inspired handle put it, "Injustice. Binders full of women sold for $0.77 at Staples. Binders full of men selling for $1.00."

Before the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963, women earned 41 cents less for each dollar earned.

Based on statistics compiled in Iowa during the 2010 Census, the average earning for a woman employed full-time is almost $11,000 less than the average earning for a man, also employed full-time.

Iowa women with bachelor's degrees, on average, earn 30 cents less per each dollar, slightly above the national average.

While the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 provides women with more provisions for fighting wage discrimination, it does not solve the problem.

Unfortunately, the issue ultimately points back to representation - are rich, middle-aged white men really an accurate portrait of America's working class?

* Ashley Miller is a member of the Pilot news staff. Reach the columnist at amiller@stormlakepilottribune.com