It is no surprise that the American work force is segregated by a gender binary. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2011, the most common job for women was an administrative assistant. The same position, though labeled secretary at the time, was also the most popular occupation for women in 1950. If women were able to hold a steady-paying job both then and now, what’s the issue?

Women working in female-dominated positions such as administrative assistant are at a double disadvantage: they earn less than they would in male-dominated fields and less than men in the same position. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, male administrative assistants made $100 more weekly than women in the same position, even though women dominate the field. The same trend applies to elementary school teachers and registered nurses, the second and third most common occupations held by women, as men earn at least $50 more a week than women. The biggest problem with the United States workforce is not that there are certain male- and female-dominated fields, but men are paid more than women across the board.

Even 52 years after President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law in 1963, we are still far from equality. In Iowa, a woman holding a full-time job is paid 77 cents to every dollar a man makes. Nationally, African American women are paid 64 cents, and Latina women a mere 55 cents, to every dollar paid to a white, non-hispanic man.

The wage gap has become a hot topic in the upcoming presidential election, with candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders leading support for the Paycheck Fairness Act. The proposed legislation would put gender-based discrimination on equal footing with other forms of wage discrimination such as race, age, and disability. It would require employers to justify unequal pay by proving wage differences to be job-related.

The good news is that there are very few positions that American women haven’t held. As Cindia Cameron from 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, put it, “The glass ceiling is cracking in all different directions, but the bad news is, there is still a sticky floor.”

It’s time to mop up the sticky residue that is keeping the American workforce from achieving true wage equality.

Anna Wolle is a philosophy major with a management studies concentration at St. Olaf College. She is from Cedar Rapids.

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