With Labor Day behind us, the 2020 presidential election is suddenly looming: there are 55 days between now and Election Day on Nov. 3. Suffice it to say there are some issues to consider between now and then. Turns out there are also a lot of great songs that address them, sometimes in a protest-minded, take-it-to-the-streets way and sometimes in a more matter-of-fact manner. Over the next two months, I’m going to write about some of them here, to highlight the issues and the songs. First up: “Pay Gap” by Margo Price.
The tune, from Price’s 2017 album “All American Made,” confronts an age-old issue: gender-based wage disparity. In other words, women generally make less money than men. Women in 2020 make 81 cents for every dollar a man makes, according to PayScale, which tracks compensation data. That’s up by 7 cents since 2015 (and the gap narrows when measuring median salary for men and women with the same job and qualifications), but according to my math [checks notes] 81 cents per dollar is still less than parity.
Price doesn’t need a detailed breakdown of the figures to know that something is amiss: having worked plenty of jobs herself, she has lived the wage gap (and, as a country artist, she’s part of a genre that is subject to an enormous gender disparity in terms of radio play). Over the lilting accompaniment of accordion, dobro and a deceptively breezy rhythm, Price sings in feathery tones about getting shortchanged. “Pay gap, pay gap / Ripping my dollars in half,” she sings on the chorus in a vivid illustration of the stakes.
It’s telling that the second verse finds Price mollifying the skeptics, singing that, no, she doesn’t think she’s better than anyone, she only wants what she’s owed — as if women should have to justify wanting to make the same money as men. Later, she has a pretty good idea why the wage gap persists. “We are all the same in the eyes of God / But in the eyes of rich white men / No more than a maid to be owned like a dog / A second-class citizen.”
Election Day is Nov. 3. If you haven’t yet, be sure to register to vote.