January 8, 2009
and Senate confirmations, there is a clear chance to improve the
lives of
working women. This week the House will consider H.R. 11 the Lilly Ledbetter
Fair Pay act and H.R. 12 the Paycheck Fairness Act. These bills are important
steps towards closing the wage gap between men and women in the
United States. Today, almost 90 years after women fought for and won the right to vote, they still earn 78 cents to a working mans’ $1. The Economic Roundtable estimates that for undocumented women workers, the average wage amounts to only 46% of undocumented
male workers’ annual pay. And in cases where men and women do the exact same
job, as was the case with Lilly Ledbetter, they make only 50% of men’s average
wages. The AFL-CIO estimates that single working mothers
earned as much as men in comparable jobs, their family incomes would increase by
nearly 17 percent and their poverty rates would be cut in half, from 25.3
percent to 12.6 percent. And as demonstrated in Center for American Progress’
report Lifetime Losses: The Career Wage Gap, this disparity means that women lose approximately $434,000, on average, over a 40-year period because of the gender wage gap.
Cassandra
Baker, STITCH
and Senate confirmations, there is a clear chance to improve the
lives of
working women. This week the House will consider H.R. 11 the Lilly Ledbetter
Fair Pay act and H.R. 12 the Paycheck Fairness Act. These bills are important
steps towards closing the wage gap between men and women in the
United States. Today, almost 90 years after women fought for and won the right to vote, they still earn 78 cents to a working mans’ $1. The Economic Roundtable estimates that for undocumented women workers, the average wage amounts to only 46% of undocumented
male workers’ annual pay. And in cases where men and women do the exact same
job, as was the case with Lilly Ledbetter, they make only 50% of men’s average
wages. The AFL-CIO estimates that single working mothers
earned as much as men in comparable jobs, their family incomes would increase by
nearly 17 percent and their poverty rates would be cut in half, from 25.3
percent to 12.6 percent. And as demonstrated in Center for American Progress’
report Lifetime Losses: The Career Wage Gap, this disparity means that women lose approximately $434,000, on average, over a 40-year period because of the gender wage gap.
If we were able to get rid of the wage gap, the impact for the lives of working women would be phenomenal. STITCH works everyday with women in the US and Central America to support of their struggle for economic justice. We support the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act and the barriers to economic justice that they will knock down. We are urging all of those people that support working women to contact their members of Congress and urge them to support this important legislation. You can send an email directly from the website of the National Organization for Women here!
