If there is a catchword that sums up 2015, it must be transparency. Whether it is in reference to Hillary Clinton’s emails: “I am trying to be as transparent as I possibly can.” Or the fact that smartphones and social media have given us a direct view of what it’s like to be a black person in this country dealing with law enforcement officials, we are living in an age where formerly locked doors are being thrown open.
Let’s take the gender wage gap. It’s widely known that women get paid less than men over the course of their careers; 22 cents less per hour, to be exact. Women are paid even less than that in certain states, and significantly less if you are a woman of color: Hispanic women make 54 percent of white men’s salaries, black women 64 percent.
The fact that we know this, however, hasn’t resulted in much change: the wage gap has remained the same for more than a decade, and the Equal Pay Act hasn’t been updated in more than 50 years. (Efforts to amend the act are perpetually stalled in Congress.)
