Women Deserve Equal Pay

For full-time, year-round workers, women are paid on average only 78 percent of what men are paid; for women of color, the gap is significantly wider. These wage gaps stubbornly remain despite the passage of the Equal Pay Act in 1963, and a variety of legislation prohibiting employment discrimination.

Women still are not receiving equal pay for equal work, let alone equal pay for work of equal value. This disparity not only affects women's spending power, it penalizes their retirement security by creating gaps in Social Security and pensions.

Facts About Pay Equity | What You Can Do

Facts About Pay Equity

In 2007, women's median annual paychecks reflected only 78 cents for every $1.00 earned by men. Specifically for women of color, the gap is even wider: In comparison to men's dollar, African American women earn only 69 cents and Latinas just 59 cents. ¹
In 1963, when the Equal Pay Act was passed, full-time working women were paid 59 cents on average for every dollar paid to men. This means it took 44 years for the wage gap to close just 19 cents -- a rate of less than half a penny a year. This narrowing of the gap has slowed down over the last six years, with women gaining a mere two cents since 2001. ²
Women's median pay was less than men's in each and every one of the 20 industries and 25 occupation groups surveyed by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2007.³ Even men working in female-dominated occupations tend to earn more than women working in those same occupations.⁴
According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), if equal pay for women were instituted immediately, across the board, it would result in an annual $319 billion gain nationally for women and their families (in 2008 dollars). Over her working life, a typical woman could expect to gain a total of $210,000 in additional income if equal pay were the norm (these numbers include part-time workers).⁵
When The WAGE Project looked exclusively at full-time workers, they estimated that women with a high school diploma lose as much as $700,000 over a lifetime of work, women with a college degree lose $1.2 million and professional school graduates may lose up to $2 million.⁶ Not only are these inequities enormously detrimental to women and their families, wage inequities follow women into their retirement years, reducing their Social Security benefits, pensions, savings and other financial resources.
A study by the American Association of University Women (AAUW) examined how the wage gap affects college graduates. Wage disparities kick in shortly after college graduation, when women and men should, absent discrimination, be on a level playing field. One year after graduating college, women are paid on average only 80 percent of their male counterparts' wages, and during the next 10 years, women's wages fall even further behind, dropping to only 69 percent of men's earnings ten years after college. According to the AAUW report, even after "[c]ontrolling for hours, occupation, parenthood, and other factors normally associated with pay, college-educated women still earn less than their male peers earn. . . . A large portion of the gender pay gap is not explained by women's choices or characteristics." ⁷
Women still are segregated into "pink-collar" jobs that affect their wages, according to an AAUW report. Their analysis of Department of Education data found women "overwhelmingly clustered in low-wage, low-skill fields." For example, the report showed women comprising 87 percent of workers in the child care industry and 86 percent of the health aide industry.⁸
A far greater proportion of women cut back or interrupt time in the paid workforce to deal with family responsibilities. Over a 15-year period, "the more likely a woman is to have dependent children and be married, the more likely she is to be a low earner and have fewer hours in the labor market. The opposite holds true for men: marriage and dependent children make it much more likely that a man has higher earnings and works longer hours," according to IWPR.⁹
Time out of the workforce can directly impact women's earning potential. AAUW reports that "Women who are not working . . . can be expected to have lower wages when they return to the labor market . . . Research shows that mothers who maintain employment after childbirth have higher earnings than do mothers who leave the work force."¹⁰
It is important to note that women's choices regarding work are not made in a vacuum. Factors that impact women's decisions include: workplace discrimination, either experienced or anticipated; a lack of women-friendly policies and resources in the workplace; persistent stereotypes that steer women and men toward different education, training and career paths; different societal expectations for wives compared to husbands and mothers compared to fathers; and myriad forms of sexism, both subtle and blatant.

What You Can Do

Send a message to your senators asking them to cosponsor the Paycheck Fairness Act. The House version of the Paycheck Fairness Act was passed in January 2009, and now it's time for Senate action. The House passed both the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act, but the Senate considered and passed ONLY the Ledbetter legislation. In order to build up steam for this bill, we need to increase the number of Senate sponsors. Please contact your senators and encourage them to sponsor this important women's rights bill.
Wear red on Equal Pay Day, April 28. If we're going to be "in the red," we might as well wear it proudly to show our determination to end the wage gap.
Host an "Un-happy hour" on April 28 to signal your dissatisfaction with the wage gap. See if a local bar, club, or restaurant (try the women-owned ones first!) will give you drink specials for the night: ideas include Dollar Drinks for 78 Cents or women pay 78% of their tabs and men pay 100%. Use this social time to network and plan local activities that can lead to improved wages for women and economic health for their families.
Attend a local rally or plan one. Check with your NOW chapter and other local groups in your area to see if anyone is planning a rally (the participating organizations of the National Committee on Pay Equity is a good place to look for groups). Take your NOW rounds or homemade signs, fact sheets, alerts and determination…and feel free to wear red.
Learn more about the wage gap. Here are some additional resources on pay equity:
- National Committee on Pay Equity website
- American Association of University Women:
  Pay Equity and Workplace Opportunity (PDF)
  Behind the Pay Gap
- Institute for Women's Policy Research: The Gender Wage Gap Fact Sheet (PDF)
- Still A Man's Labor Market: The Long-Term Earnings Gap (PDF)
- A New Look Through the Glass Ceiling: Where are the Women? Commissioned by Representatives John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.)
  Original Jan 2002
  Update 2004