Dozens of problems, and many have been the focus of hot debate between the 2016 president ial candidates. But there is one issue that has gone largely undiscussed. In america today, women make only 3 4 of what a man makes for the same work. Why . We went to federal representatives to find out. We are in a society now where there are a lot of singleparent homes in our society now. The kids are usually with the mom, so when they are only . 76 per dollar, what youre really doing is you are taking money not just away from that one woman, you are actually taking away from the whole family unit. If you have women as head of households with more income, they are going to spend more money. Invest more in decades. In their kids. That has more positive ramifications. Of course, i think the big elephant in the room that can be awkward to talk about, women continue to take a lot of time out of the workforce and downgrade their work when they have kids. When they leave work for a couple of years, that takes them out of the wage scale. The opportunity for them to get years of experience in order for them to get pay increases. Businesses should not be penalizing women for being good mothers. What that wage gap means, for all women, but it is even worse for women of color, it means months of rent or mortgage that cant be paid. It is very, very tough, and we see that wage gap across the board, in all industries and across all educational levels. Women are still lagging behind. Across the board, women of all ethnicities are making 20 to over 40 less than white men. When we compare the Weekly Earnings of men and women, we see that education is no guarantee of wage equality. The gap actually grows with each level of earning. Level of learning. Things did not just suddenly change overnight. Managers dont just stop becoming sexist overnight. A lot of policies that exist in companies have existed for sometimes 50 years. That have benefited men and are not going to change all of a sudden. I opened for records from when i was 19, and the one job ahead before that was working in z records. This was many years ago, when the original owner was alive. I was working really hard for them. I had worked there since i was 15, and i went to him when a management position came open and i told him i thought i was best suited for that management position, and he actually laughed and said what are you crazy . No one will ever listen to a 100 pound woman. Instead, i opened up my own record store and became his number one competitor. Kat has worked her entire life doing tech work and television theaters, a traditionally maledominated field. I feel i have to work 10 times harder than any man doing the job to at least keep up to the level of just hanging on to the position i am lucky enough to get that usually a man holds. I grew up in a single parent home. My mom raised us after my dad left at a very, very young age. I saw her, you know, struggle to make sure we had rent, food, good clothing. I know that had she received a higher wage that higher wage , would have come back to our family. If i could get them that 20 more, that 25 more, and i know i will impact their lives directly. Be impacts forll all of society. Ruben gallego is a strong proponent of the paycheck fairness act, a powerful piece of legislation that goes a long way to making sure businesses a their workers without bias or termination. For every working woman in the u. S. , they are paid over 10,000 less than their male counterparts. They earn . 70 for every dollar paid to a fulltime working man. The gap has been closing at a rate less than one half a cent per year since the passage of the 1963 equal pay act. If the wage gap is closing at only half of one cent per year, that means it will be another 50 years before the gap is closed. That is not so bad if you are born in 2066, but what about todays women, who worked all their lives at a financial disadvantage . I think it is important for us to break down the social taboo of not talking about our salaries. I do think that there are small ways we can count victories, but in terms of where the money and power resides, i dont think we are really in a better place. And that, i would say, is as much to do with generation as it is with gender. It is really hard to change the minds of people that have grown up thinking that a womans place is in the home, barefoot and pregnant. I think the average person on the street can contribute by taking the time to give positive feedback on women in the workplace. Simply not talking to a womans chest is one way to start. [laughter] at the end of the day, happy workers that are being properly compensated end up making a country better. And at a time when people are struggling to make ends meet, and many families are trying to get by on one paycheck after a job loss, it is a reminder that achieving equal pay for equal work is not just a womans issue. Its a family issue. Every day, millions of women work hard to support themselves and their families. We have seen their struggles, heard their stories, and learned that the wage gap is not just a problem for women. It is a problem for everyone and for our entire economy. The ways that we can change our out there, so the only question left to ask our future president is this what are you going to do . To watch all of the prizewinning documentaries in this years studentcam competition, visit studentcam. Org. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the campaign 2016 bus continues his travels to visit winners from this years student cam cover reputation. We visibly thats we recently visited nevada to recognize just as beth for her third prize document any on the Wild Horse Population in the united states. The bus and then headed to california to meet with winners and that state, including a visit to san diego, where congressman scott peters to part in the ceremony, recognizing the students for their winning documentary. Congressmen conga summoned judy chu recognize the second Prize Winners for their documentary on social security. A special thanks to our cable cox,ers, charter, comcast, and time warner cable. He sure to watch one of the top 21 winning entries before washington journal. On the communicators, george ford, chief economist for policyanced legal and studies, and mark cooper debate the sec proposal allowing consumers to buy their own set top boxes. They are joined by the Telecommunications Reporter for bloomberg bna lydia beyoud