Meaghan Stout was 16 years old when she first learned she was being paid less than a man.

She was the head hostess at Round the Bend Steakhouse, in Ashland, Nebraska, training a younger employee. The two were bantering about some of the more frustrating parts of the job when he mentioned his pay.

"The only reason why I'm still here is because I make $11 an hour." he said, according to Stout,. She said she didn't believe it. "No you don't," she replied. "Yeah, I do," he said.

Armed with that information, Stout asked for a raise and got it.

Speaking to the owner of the restaurant, she found out that the kitchen manager had given raises to the male workers, but not to the women.

Even after getting the raise, Stout said she was mad at the kitchen manager for giving her co-worker that raise so early in his time on the job. The new employee had a fraction of her experience, but was compensated more because he was friends with the kitchen manager.

“It was kind of depressing to only be barely in high school and finding out really quickly that things like that actually happen,” Stout said.

Now 23, Stout has left that job behind, but the experience has made her more willing to ask how much people are compensated for the work that they do.

Stout’s experience is reflected in federal data, academic research and the lives of many Nebraska women. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Nebraska women make about 80 cents for every dollar a man makes.. This pay disparity, known as the wage gap, persists after decades of women fully participating in the labor force – and even 50 years after women were guaranteed equal access to education after the passage of Title IX.

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