First, it’s really expensive to raise a child — it costs nearly $250,000 over 18 years, without even factoring in higher education. Second, punishing a woman financially for choosing to start a family while simultaneously shaming women who choose not to have kids is one of the worst double standards women have to face

A report from the Institute For Women’s Policy Research found that if women were paid fairly, single women’s income would rise by 13.4 percent, single mothers would earn 17 percent more, and married women’s income would increase by 6 percent. This would greatly increase the ability of women from all economic backgrounds to provide basic support to their families, including food, education, and child care.

According to economist Evelyn Murphy, president of The Wage Project, a woman’s lost earnings over her lifetime add up to $700,000 for high school graduates, $1.2 million for university graduates, and $2 million for a professional school graduates. That’s a lot of money that’s not getting put into the economy.

Men are increasingly turning to women as a source of financial support as the world’s economic crisis worsens. So, as the economy takes its toll on a disproportionate number of men, now is the time to guarantee that women have the same ability to support their families with fair and equal wages.

Even though many women have invested the same time and money into higher education as their male counterparts, they often do not earn the same salary. According to some estimates, a woman with a bachelor’s degree or higher can lose $713,000 over the span of a 40-year career. With a fierce job market, women need an incentive to continue investing in higher education.

Women tend to be more charitable than men, but that tendency can’t reach its full potential if women can’t reach theirs. If women had more disposable income, more money could be donated to causes that they care about, and more social issues could be improved.

Men in Singapore work some of the longest hours in the industrialised world. They also have the smallest amount of leisure time, usually so that their wives can spend more time on family caregiving. By spending more time making up for their wives’ lower wages, men are spending countless hours away from their families.

Social programs funded by income and wage taxes are dramatically affected by the wage gap. Because women make less money, these tax revenues — many of which fund vital community services—are lower than they should be.

Giving women more power in the upper echelons of professional institutions (and paying them well for their time) is crucial to shoring up the country’s future. Although no single woman speaks all women everywhere, including the female perspective when it comes to business creates a more rounded frame of reference when making far-reaching decisions.

As workers, women have some advantages over men that should justify higher pay — one study found that women are more productive and less distracted. But also, women are human beings who don’t deserve to be punished for their gender. By showing society that women can’t be discriminated against through their paychecks, it slowly eats away at other issues to do with gender and benefits all in the long run.