The Gender Pay Gap Goes All The Way To the Top

Wow, according to the leaked Sony documents and emails, even famous beautiful childless young white women Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams aren’t immune from the 77-cents-on-the-dollar thing. They were paid less than their male counterparts Bradley Cooper and Christian Bale in the movie American Hustle, even though the women brought equal or superior star-power as well as Oscar hardware.

from the JLaw exchange, we learn how direct and deliberate pay discrimination can be. The studio executives — yes, including women executives — knew Lawrence and Adams were being paid less. Several layers of lawyers and finance people likely touched the deals and knew the disparities. And yet, at least as of the writing of this one hacked e-mail, just a week before the movie’s first release date, the inequity was still in place. …

Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams aren’t average women; they have far more power and resources to ensure they are paid what they are worth. So if, despite that, they still get paid just 77 cents for every $1 their male counterparts make, ordinary women negotiating on their own for an hourly wage as a cashier or an annual salary as a mid-level manager don’t stand a chance. If the pay gap is so flagrantly affecting one of Hollywood’s biggest female stars, can there be any doubt it’s also affecting typical working women — probably far worse?

Whoever JLaw’s agent is, she should fire the hell out of him. She deserves someone who will get her all the money, or at least as much as Bradley “Bad Perm” Cooper.

* Correction: Amy Adams has a child. JLaw doesn’t.

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