NOW Calls for Congressional Solution to End Wage Discrimination

April 19, 2005

"The fact is simple and unacceptable - forty-two years after the Equal Pay Act was passed women working full-time, year round, are only making 76 cents to every dollar a man earns," said NOW President Kim Gandy. "This kind of discrimination has an economically devastating impact on women and their families."

Senator Hillary Clinton spoke on Equal Pay Day as Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, Representative Rosa DeLauro and Senator Tom Harkin listened. Senator Clinton and Representative Rosa DeLauro introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act in Congress.

The wage gap between men and women stubbornly remains despite passage of the Equal Pay Act in 1963. Why do more women than men live in poverty? Because many of them are working minimum or sub-minimum wage jobs and because they still are not receiving equal pay for equal work.

"Disparity in pay limits women's buying power, affects their ability to pay for quality childcare, prevents them from saving for retirement, and hinders them from receiving livable Social Security benefits based on their wages," Gandy said. "Pay discrimination not only affects women, but it also puts their families at a disadvantage."

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton also spoke on Equal Pay Day.

If women's wages continue to increase at this sluggish pace, they will not achieve parity until 2042. Currently, women have to work more than three additional months into the next year to receive the wages that a man is paid in just a year.

"The consequences of deliberate pay discrimination for women and their families are profound," Gandy said. "The workplace pay gap means that both single mothers and two-income families have less money to raise their children, less ability to afford health care and lesser savings to meet emergencies — we can't let families suffer any longer."

Eradicating the current wage gap that exists between the sexes is part of NOW's longstanding commitment to women's equality.

"We encourage women and supporter's of equal pay to contact their legislators and demand the enactment of a Paycheck Fairness Act and Fair Pay Act," Gandy said. "With your help, we can finally level the playing field for working women and their families."

###

Sign up to receive press releases by email.