Equal Pay Day is Tuesday, April 4, because it marks the number of days into 2017 that an American woman needs to work to earn what a man earned in 2016.
Although the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1963, women make an average of 82 cents for every dollar a man earns. In 1963, it was 54 cents to $1. The wage gap is even greater for most women of color.
“For families across the country, the pay gap translates into less take-home pay that women can use to help meet the everyday needs of their families, including buying groceries, paying rent, and affording doctors’ visits,” said Nancy Pelosi, Senate minority leader.
“This unfair, unjust pay gap costs women an average of $418,800 by the time they retire,” Pelosi said.
To address the pay gap, Congress needs to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would update the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and provide effective remedies for women who aren’t being paid equal wages for equal work, she said.
“More than 70 days into the Trump Presidency, American families are still waiting for President Trump to fulfill his promises to working people,” Pelosi said.
On March 27, Trump revoked the 2014 Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces order that President Barack Obama signed to ensure that companies with federal contracts follow 14 labor and civil rights laws.
The order included two rules that impact women workers: paycheck transparency and a ban on forced arbitration clauses for sexual harassment, sexual assault, or discrimination claims.
To learn more about women’s pay, see “The Simple Truth About the Gender Pay Gap,” “Five Ways to Win an Argument About the Gender Wage Gap,” and “What Is the Gender Pay Gap and Is It Real?”
Equal Pay Day was created by the National Committee on Pay Equity in 1996 as a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men's and women's wages.
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