EQUAL PAY DAY
by Rita Bochner Wolfsohn

Equal Pay Day focuses on the gender wage gap. Women earn between 74 and 76 cents for each dollar paid to their male counterparts. Over a lifetime it is estimated that disparity costs women between $250,000-$500,000, and every year it costs working families 200 billion dollars!

This year Equal Pay Day is April 15th. That means that a woman must work 3.5 extra months (that is, until April 15th) to earn the same salary her male colleague earns in a 12-month period for doing comparable work. According to the US Census Bureau, in 1963 (the year the Equal Pay Act was signed) women who worked full-time, year-round made 59 cents on average for every dollar earned by men. In 2000, women earned 73 cents to the dollar. Those numbers demonstrate a narrowing in the wage gap of just a third of a penny per year for the past 37 years. They also indicate that on an annual basis the average woman earns approximately $13,087 less than the average man.

Data provided by the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics reveals that women earn less in every occupational classification for which enough information is available. Even in job categories where women make up the majority of workers, men are paid more.
According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, women earn less than men in every state. The differences in median annual earnings range from $3,500 in Washington, D.C., to $10,262 in West Virginia.

Pay inequity impacts the lives of men, children and families, as well as the lives of women. The more you know about it the clearer you will be on what you need do to compensate for it. Learn more about the gender pay gap at the following web sites:

aflcio.org/yourjobeconomy/women/

www.bpwusa.org/content/FairPay/EqualPayDay/equalpayday.htm