Equal Pay Day

Floor Speech

Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, women played a tremendous role in the 2012 elections--including fighting for equal pay. Today, we commemorate Equal Pay Day, the time typically three months into the new year that it takes for women's wages to catch up to what men were paid in the previous year. This is an annual reminder that the wallets of America's women are not as heavy as they should be because women face pay discrimination. Even when accounting for education, industry, and hours worked there remains a wage gap.

Women's lifetime earnings will never recover from the persistent reduction in wages they receive relative to their male counterparts. Nationwide, women make 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man. While these sound like pennies, in fact they add up to a yearly gap of $11,084 between full-time working men and women. This decrease in take home pay affects not just women but also their families.

In New York City, which I'm proud to represent, women who work full time are paid 85 cents for every dollar paid to men who work full time, adding up to a yearly gap of $8,429. As a result, New York City's women collectively lose more than $23 million a year because of the wage gap. This is simply unacceptable for working women and their families in New York and nationwide.

In the 111th Congress, I was proud to serve as the first female Chair of the Joint Economic Committee. At the end of my tenure I issued the report, ``Invest in Women, Invest in America: A Comprehensive Review of Women in the U.S. Economy.'' This comprehensive report included research done by the Committee, testimony from several hearings, and GAO reports assessing the detrimental gender wage gap for part-time workers and older Americans as well as wider discussions of women's continued under-representation in management level positions. As I said in that report, ``The decisions we make today will have dramatic impacts on our nation's future economic well-being, and we must carefully consider what those decisions will mean for women, both as consumers and as producers.''

There is a remedy to this persistent problem of unequal pay. I have consistently supported the Paycheck Fairness Act, commonsense legislation that gives women the tools to fight wage discrimination and provides stronger workplace protections for working women. This Congress must stand up for working families and provide for the basic rights and fairness of 51 percent of the U.S. population.

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