I mean, just look at what the data shows us. 

According to Pew research, these stats have not changed much in two decades.

(source)

In fact, during COVID I sat in on my Girls Zoom Young Women’s lesson where a guest speaker told of her experience at work where she was frustrated that a man, who had less experience on a job than she, was getting paid more than her. She wrestled with her feelings of discontentment and concluded that those feelings were coming from Satan, therefore her desire to be paid more or at least equally was wrong and of the devil. She didn’t asked for a raise or bring up her concern. She must have concluded that women don’t deserve to be paid as much as men…right?

September 18th has been established as International Equal Pay Day by the United Nations in an effort to bring attention to the gender wage gap.

If you live in Belgium, Congratulations! You live in a country with the most equal pay with a wage gap rate of 1.1%. However, if you live in South Korea, your wage gap rests at 31.2%. And these are the countries that have committed to “democracy and market based economies that want to develop policies and standards to promote sustainable economic growth.” Therefore, the countries that don’t fit these parameters, well, may not be working toward equal pay among all humans…due to more pressing issues.

Bringing the magnifying glass closer to the headquarters of our shared theological roots (if you are or ever have been Mormon), we can examine how our women fair in relation to equal pay in Utah. Amy Allebest in her Podcast Breaking Down Patriarchy, focused our glass on the issue nicely.

Can you guess where Utah stands against other states in relation to gender equity in the United States? Drumroll please……..number……50!! Last, dead last. But don’t worry, when it comes to the pay gap Utah rests around 45th or 47th, says Susan Madsen (founder of A Bolder Way Forward). Sorry Wyoming, Alabama, and …sniff…New Hampshire, you’re worse.

Why do I point Utah out? Well, besides being the epicenter of where all church decisions are made, its lawmakers are by large majority members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Utah’s laws are a reflection of what this church’s leaders and lawmaking members think of any gender other than male.

Reading what it’s like to teach seminary for the church, also points to this fact. Found here as well. Women are undervalued and underpaid or not even paid in jobs that are presented as callings. I say women in this case, because the majority of paid seminary teachers are men, and the unpaid callings are, in my experience, reserved for women. Women shouldn’t be paid working mothers, but no problem with unpaid service.

Salt Lake Community College in an article written from their slcc.pressbooks.pub sums this up well:

“Without exception, women in every developed and undeveloped country in the world suffer from higher rates of poverty than men. Women are not paid for doing work—cleaning, childcare, senior care, shopping, cooking, laundry, bookkeeping—associated with their own household. This category of domestic work is not commodified as an economic activity, which severely devalues the financial worth of the woman and the services she provides. This devaluation, in turn, negatively affects how women are perceived as contributors to society. In short, women are expected to work for free and, at the same time, are categorized as social freeloaders.”

I volunteered to clean a multi stake girls camp nestled in the Wasatch Mountains this summer. Large groups of volunteers were directed by a woman, who for the last five years had been coming up once a week, all year round, with more frequent trips during the summer months, to manage the camp and its paid employees.

(queue the record scratching…).

“What? You manage a large group of camp employees that are paid and you are not?”

This is only normal in the LDS church (we pride ourself on not paying volunteers…not counting the top 15 men in our church that get a large living stipend on top of their retirements- $120, 000 is not modest and these men have already had their careers). Our church can hide discrimination when it’s masked as sacrifice, service, or “Gods will”. We feel guilty to want pay. Besides, didn’t we promise in the temple to sacrifice everything?! Even to the point of giving our lives for the cause?

This leaves room for abuse and manipulation of our people….of our women.

Point is, the church plays well into the gender pay gap, especially as women age…the gap grows.

So what is to be done? I am preaching to the choir on this issue to be sure. I thought at first that it was perhaps that we women don’t ask for raises as much as men (note the example I gave above), but this article proves that idea to the contrary. Woman ask, but are less likely to get a raise than when a man asks.

The other thought was this, “Men apply for a job when they meet only 60% of the qualifications, but women apply only if they meet 100% of them.” Women are also willing to accept a job for less pay than a man.

So perhaps the more we know, the more brave and sure we become in trying to close the gap for ourselves. I recently emailed my employer for a raise. I had my husband proof read the email, to which he commented that it wasn’t worded strong enough. I however, was worried about coming off as an abrasive woman and did not want to play into a negative stereotype I had of how people view working women. Luckily I got the raise. I hope you do too. I am rooting for you.

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