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Wage Gap Widens Once Again
Latest Census statistics show that the gap between men's and women's earnings widened slightly between 2007 and 2008, from 77.8 (generally rounded to 78 percent) to 77 percent. Based on the median earnings of full-time, year-round workers, women's earnings were $35,745 and men's earnings were $46,367. Median earnings for most women of color are even lower. In 2008, the earnings for African American women were $31,489, 67.9 percent of men's earnings (a drop from 68.7 percent in 2007), and Latinas' earnings were $26,846, 58 percent of men's earnings (a drop from 59 percent in 2007). Asian American women's earnings in 2008 were $42,215 -- 91 percent of men's earnings, an increase from 89.5 percent in 2007. The National Committee on Pay Equity's The Wage Gap Over Time table shows how little the wage gap has changed in this century. (See also the fact sheet from the Institute for Women's Policy Research: The Gender Wage Gap 2008.)
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Equal Pay Day 2010
Equal Pay Day on April 20, 2010 was a bigger event than ever before, with workshops, programs, rallies, blogs, tweets, video and new publications (below) and a Presidential proclamation.
- Institute for Women's Policy Research - The Gender Wage Gap By Occupation 2010: new analysis that shows that men out-earn women in nearly every occupation for which data are available.
- National Women's Law Center: Women’s Lower Wages Worsen their Circumstances In a Difficult Economy 2010.
- Center for American Progress - Interactive Map - The Persistent Wage Gap 2010: shows total career wage gaps by state over a 40-year period.
- American Association of University Women - State-by-state wage gaps 2010 (pdf).
- The Gender Pay Gap in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM): AAUW's most recent research report, Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics explores the reasons behind the continuing underrepresentation of women in certain scientific and engineering fields. While men typically earn more than women in STEM fields, as in other fields, the pay gap tends to be smaller in science and engineering. For example, women computer and information systems managers typically earn 87% of what their male colleagues earn compared to the overall gender pay gap of 77% for all occupations.
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Urge your senators to support the Paycheck Fairness Act:
The House passed the Paycheck Fairness Act to strengthen enforcement
of the Equal Pay Act on January 9, 2009. Please urge your senators to support S.182. The Paycheck Fairness
Act would ensure effective remedies for wage discrimination
and make it easier to sue on behalf of groups of women. More
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee held a hearing, "Fair Share for All: Pay Equity in the New American Workplace" on March 11, 2010, with testimony about the Paycheck Fairness Act; see www.womenspolicy.org.
Read NCPE's Feb. 23, 2009 letter to senators urging quick action on the Paycheck Fairness Act (S.182).
Join
the Fair Pay Campaign to support pay equity legislation:
The Fair Pay Campaign is
led by the American Association of University
Women, the Feminist Majority Foundation, Legal
Momentum, the National Organization for Women,
the National Partnership for Women and Families,
and the National Women's Law Center, with 250
other local, state, and national groups -- including
NCPE -- joining them. |
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Michele Leber, NCPE chair, debates
USA Today about the wage gap:
Old
attitudes die hard: Discrimination prevents women
from getting salaries they deserve
...written
in response to USA Today's opinion piece Why
women earn less: Career choices, business ventures
are bigger factors than gender bias |
| Photos from the 2008 Equal Pay Day press conference on Capitol Hill |
Ledbetter Bill Becomes Law
On January 29, 2009 President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law, making it the first legislation of his administration. The Act reverses the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling in 2007 (Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.) and restores the ability of victims of wage discrimination to hold their employers accountable for injustice and challenge the practice in court. Lilly Ledbetter was with the President when he signed the bill. VIEW VIDEO from the signing
The Senate passed the bill January 22 by a vote of 61 to 36: VOTE TALLY
The House passed the bill January 27 by a vote of 250 to 177: VOTE TALLY |
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WAGE:
Women
Are Getting
Even
WAGE Clubs:
Nationwide grassroots
movement to close the wage gap
On Equal
Pay Day, April 25, 2006 NCPE -- in collaboration
with Business and Professional Women/USA (BPW/USA);
the WAGE Project, a new grassroots organization
dedicated to closing the wage gap, and other leading
national organizations -- announced at a press
conference at the National Press Club in Washington,
DC a new nationwide grassroots movement designed
to close the wage gap once and for all.
Through this movement, WAGE
Clubs are forming throughout the country to mobilize
groups of women to talk about the wage gap and
to obtain the tools, support and momentum they
need to get even at work.
The wage gap costs the average
American full-time woman worker between $700,000
and $2 million over the course of her lifetime,
according to economist Evelyn Murphy, president
of the WAGE Project.
Speakers at the press conference,
who discussed the current status of federal equal
pay legislation and the need for multiple approaches
to this long-standing problem, included members
of Congress: Senator Tom Harkin, Representative
Rosa DeLauro, and Representative Eleanor Holmes
Norton; Michele Leber, Chair, NCPE; Roslyn Ridgeway,
President, BPW/USA; Evelyn Murphy; and Annie Houle,
Founder, The Maine WAGE Project.
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 If
we didn't have a wage gap, we wouldn't need this coupon! |
| NCPE's
COUPON was featured in Jan-Feb 2005 Making
Bread Magazine ("Female Finance" column
on pages 20-23)! |
| Updated
August 31, 2010
National Committee on Pay Equity website: Swerdloff Digital Design |
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