Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham Marks Equal Pay Day, Calls on Congress to Close Wage Gap

Press Release

Today, Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham marked Equal Pay Day pointing out that, overall, women are still paid 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, amounting to a yearly gap of $11,084 between full-time working men and women.

"As a cosponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act, I know that women cannot afford the continuance of discrimination and lower wages than their male counterparts. As primary caregivers, women must often take time away from their jobs to care for their parents and children and are unjustly penalized with lower wages. Eliminating the wage gap will provide much-needed income to women working to keep a roof over their families heads and food on the table," Rep. Lujan Grisham said.

As a group, women who are full-time employees in the state of New Mexico lose approximately $2,312,503,965 every year because of the wage gap. If the wage gap were eliminated, a working new Mexican woman would have earned enough for approximately:

-63 more weeks of food
-Seven more months of mortgage and utilities payments
-12 more months of rent
-2,445 additional gallons of gas

"The Paycheck Fairness Act would strengthen the Equal Pay Act and give women a fighting chance in wage discrimination. America's women should not have to wait any longer. It is time for wage discrimination to become a thing of the past."

Source