By ROBYN SHAPIRO

Every since World War I and World War II, when women started working the same jobs as men, there has been a gap in the earnings between them and their fellow male counterparts. Every since 1963 when the Equal Pay Act was established, women were supposed to get paid the same amount as men for doing the same job, however this has not been the case.

Although in the past 20 years the pay gap between men and women has decreased by 20 percent, at this rate it will not be until 2059 that women will receive equal pay to men.

This discrepancy between men and women is relevant to both low paying and high paying jobs. Back in October, Jennifer Lawrence spoke out saying that she was paid less than her male co-stars in the film “American Hustle.” This was discovered when Sony e-mails were leaked by hackers who called themselves the “Guardians of Peace,” in which other messages about Angelina Jolie and even President Obama were exposed.

“When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people with dicks, I didn’t get mad at Sony. I got mad at myself,” she writes. “I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early.”

Women often receive a lesser pay than men because they don’t know they should be negotiating for more money. Most of the time the women are not aware of the fact that their male counter part is getting paid more.

I think the discrepancy of salary between men and women in this era is unacceptable considering both genders can occupy the same jobs. As the media’s role to be the watch dog of society, I hope that giving more light to this topic will make women more skeptical of their salary and more active to receive the pay that they deserve.