Today is April 9, 2013.
It’s also how far into 2013 women had to work to earn what men earned in 2012.
That’s absolutely ridiculous and that’s why today we are recognizing Equal Pay Day to highlight the gap between men’s and women wages.
Women on average earn less than men for similar jobs – 77 cents for every dollar a man earns, a gender wage gap of 23%. Even more daunting: a new chart released by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) estimates that, at the current pace, the gap in pay between men and women won’t close until 2057.
2057! But yet, in 2013, women are nearly half the workforce and the equal, if not main, breadwinner in four of ten families, according to IWPR.
We can close this gender wage gap sooner but it’s going to require Congress, including Minnesota’s own Erik Paulsen and John Kline, to do the right thing and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.
The Paycheck Fairness Act would help close the pay gay between men and women and allow women to seek back pay and punitive damages for pay discrimination. It would also, among other things, set up “a grant program to strengthen salary negotiation and other workplace skills and requires the Department of Labor to enhance outreach and training efforts to eliminate pay disparities.”
But extremists Paulsen and Kline oppose equal pay and have consistently voted against the best interests of women in Minnesota.
They prevented the U.S. House of Representatives from debating and voting on the Paycheck Fairness Act AND voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which redefined unlawful employment laws and gave women more flexibility to sue over pay inequality. They also hold a lot of other extreme views on women, as well.
Equal pay for equal work is not a women’s issue, it’s a family issue, a Minnesotan issue, an American issue. Tell Paulsen and Kline today to pledge to support the Paycheck Fairness Act:
Photo Credit: MPR, Pioneer Press
