, D.C., for twenty-five years. Though barely making a sustenance salary of $22,000 annually, what bothers Dews most are the different categories and pay male and female employees receive: “What irks her is that men who do the same job earn $30,000. The men are called ‘laborers’. They can progress five grades. The women, however, are called ‘custodial worker,’ which means they can only advance two grades” (Barko 61).
Such conditions are commonplace among men and women across the U.S. Such conditions are also common despite the existence of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, legislation that has proven ineffective since a woman still earns only 74 cents on average for
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