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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Siskiyou Challenge pedals, paddles and runs in and around Ashland ... Meeting about Nevada Street bridge options Thursday evening ... Former Washington superintendent to replace Hummel ... Siskiyou Challenge pedals, paddles and runs in and around Ashland ... Meeting about Nevada Street bridge options Thursday evening ... Former Washington superintendent to replace Hummel ... COMMENTARY Jeffrey Gillespie: In pursuit of equal pay Comment DailyTidings.com Writer Posted Apr. 15, 2016 at 12:01 AM Posted Apr. 15, 2016 at 12:01 AM » Social News This past week, Americans "celebrated" Equal Pay Day, slated for April 12, as a mechanism for drawing attention to the continuing pay gap between men and women. The right considers the day an arbitrary component of a continuing feminist agenda that many continue to refuse to acknowledge as a real problem. With a female candidate finally poised to be the first nominee for the presidency, here in 2016 the "wage gap" is still making sure women who do the exact same job in their chosen profession as a man does are taking home a miserable 79 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. But that doesn't tell the whole story. While women have managed to drag the pay gap upward to the tune of a miserable 20 cents since 1974 (or 0.47 percent a year), earning ratios have seen the most gains in areas that are, you guessed it, predominantly seen as wealthy, detached, liberal and over-educated. So while pink-collar female workers in many areas of the country are still feeling the sting of gender prejudice in their pocketbooks, Washington, D.C. has by far the lowest income disparity between the sexes — women in D.C. earn 90 cents to every male dollar, while in New York, they make 87 cents to every guy-buck. It would not be a huge stretch to suggest that the reason women have made such minuscule gains in earnings over the years may have as much to do with clueless bubble-dwelling among their sisters in the professions as it does with the phallus-centric motivations pointed to by feminists who are laying out the pay gap blame map in an election year. Affluent, educated women may be more than willing to march for gender equality, but when it comes down to it, New York and D.C. are not doing much more than paying lip service to the problem. And while there are multiple points of access and support for women who have suffered emotional, psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of male perpetrators, powerful women are not standing up sufficiently for their disenfranchised compatriots on the economic front. Simply put, may women are left to struggle alone when they are getting hit in the pocketbook as opposed to in the face. This is a high leverage issue. Working-class women are far more likely to spread any financial windfall around in their communities than are working-class men. If not using a financial gain to help others, they are saving their money at rates between 7 percent and 16 percent higher than the average male. But while female empowerment in emerging economies is all the rage among liberal and conservative Americans alike, many of our own working-class women are losing ground at an alarming rate. And that's just among Caucasians. When you go beyond white America, the statistics are appalling: Black women earn only 64 cents to the white male dollar. Latina and Hispanic women are on the bottom of the spectrum, earning about half of what white men make for doing the same job. While the pay gap continues to receive plenty of lip service from the entire roster of presidential hopefuls this year, it remains to be seen what any one of them will do about it once they reach the Oval Office. Anything designed to empower women is a useful political tool for those seeking power; it would be a real tragedy if the first woman president in the history of the republic were to turn her perfectly coiffed head away from the issue once she has secured the most powerful office in the world. Ashland resident Jeffrey Gillespie is a Daily Tidings columnist, arts reviewer and freelance writer. Email him at gillespie.jeffrey @gmail.com. 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