It’s no secret a main focus revolving around the Time’s Up and Me Too movements involves gender equality, and one factor in creating equality is to close the pay gap.

There has long been a disparity between men and women’s working wages. Women have rallied for equal pay for equal work since 1883, according to Time magazine.

That’s right, for as long as women have been part of the work force they have fought for equal pay as their male counterparts when it comes to doing the exact same job.

Since the first strike for equal pay in 1883, there has been slow but valuable progress in women earning the same as men, starting in 1911 when women teachers won the right to be payed the same as male teachers in the state of New York.

However, despite the progress, women still earn 88 cents to every dollar men earn, and this number can vary depending on the job and industry.

Fast forward to present day as the Time’s Up and Me Too movements continue to spread the message that women are not only fed up with earning less than their male counterparts for the doing the exact same job, but women are also done with having to deal with sexual assault and harassment in and out of the workplace.

And now, nearly half of US companies are agreeing that it’s time to start closing the wage gap once and for all.

Because of the two movements, 48 percent of companies are reviewing their pay policies, according to Moneyish, with 28 percent of companies claiming they already pay men and women the same for their work.

But this doesn’t mean that women should assume they are earning the same as the men. Out of the companies reviewing their pay policies non of them have a 100 percent transparent pay practice.

This means most companies, roughly 90 percent, do not freely and openly engage with employees about the various salaries earned across the board in each department.

This means it would be solely up to the employee to ensure they are receiving equal pay as their co-workers because salaries are not freely made visible to every employee.

Yet despite the lack of pay transparency in the workforce, there is still positive changes being made to help close the pay gap and ensure equal pay for equal work for any working professional.