Tuesday was Equal Pay Day and members of Congress called for greater equity in wages between men and women.
National Equal Pay Day is the date in the year that is supposed to represent how many days past Dec. 31 that women have to work to earn what men took home the previous year.
“Equal Pay Day is a day to call on America’s leaders to ensure that hard-working women receive fair compensation for their work,” said House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “This is about the dignity of work, the opportunity to get ahead, and the prosperity that improves the lives of our hard-working families.”
President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963. The goal was to abolish pay disparity based on gender.
But women earn 78 cents for every dollar a man earns, according to the Department of Labor. The size of the gap, however, has been subject to debate because women and men work different jobs, as well as other factors.
“Congress needs to act and extend real, enforceable pay equity protection to all women,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., author of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which passed the House twice, but never made it through the Senate.
DeLauro reintroduced the bill again in late March, with more than 180 co-sponsors this time. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., offered a Senate version. It would require employers to base pay disparity on job-performance instead of gender, and would prevent retaliation from employers for any pay negotiations.
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