From Moms Rising (https://www.momsrising.org/):
VICTORY!!! The House of Representative PASSED the Paycheck Fairness Act (HR 7/S 270) — right in time for Equal Pay Day on April 2nd!
Now we’re charging full speed ahead toward the U.S. Senate with our campaign for equal pay! Tell our U.S. Senators to co-sponsor and advance the Paycheck Fairness Act at https://action.momsrising.org/sign/PFA_2019_2.
This new 116th Congress, the most diverse in history, is the best shot we’ve had in years to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act through both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Why do we need the Paycheck Fairness Act? Because right now, women of color and moms still earn far too little compared to white men and dads. Moms are typically paid just 69 cents for every dollar paid to dads, while Latinas are paid 53 cents, Native American women 58 cents, Black women 61 cents, and Asian women 85 cents for every dollar paid to white men. Moms of color experience double wage hits. Overall, women make 80 cents on the dollar. [1]
Don’t wait! TELL YOUR U.S. SENATORS: Pass the Paycheck Fairness Act!
The Paycheck Fairness Act will help close the gender wage gap. This smart policy would close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act and:
Protect against retaliation for discussing salaries with colleagues;
Prohibit employers from screening job applicants based on their salary history or requiring salary history during the interview and hiring process;
Require employers to prove that pay disparities exist for legitimate, job-related reasons;
Provide plaintiffs who file sex-based wage discrimination claims under the Equal Pay Act with the same remedies available to plaintiffs who file race- or ethnicity-based wage discrimination claims under the Civil Rights Act; and
Create a negotiation skills training program for women and girls.
Along with the Paycheck Fairness Act, solutions like paid family and medical leave, affordable childcare and healthcare, and earned sick days help close the insidious wage gap.
On average, women lose out on over $10,000 each year because of unequal pay. That’s $10,000 that could be spent on groceries, childcare, healthcare, and education. [2]
This has to stop! There’s real momentum behind equal pay in Congress and we need the Paycheck Fairness Act to get voted on by the U.S. Senate.
Raise your voice now for the Paycheck Fairness Act!
The wage gap is real and it has very real impacts on working families. If the wage gap were eliminated, working women would be able to afford 14 more months of child care or 10 more months of rent each year. [3]
Three-quarters of mothers are now breadwinners for their families, so when moms make less, more women and children fall into poverty. [4] And this is not a small number of impacted people: nearly a quarter of children are now living in poverty in our nation. [5]
Families making less also spend less, which impacts our consumer-driven economy. If women had pay parity, studies show our national GDP would increase by 3 percent. [6]
[1] The Paycheck Fairness Act – National Partnership for Women & Families
[2] Ibid.
[3] America’s Women and the Wage Gap – National Partnership for Women & Families
[4] Breadwinning Mothers are Increasingly the U.S. Norm – Center for American Progress
[5] Child Poverty – National Center for Children in Poverty
[6] President’s Message – Institute for Women’s Policy Research
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