Congresswoman Beatty Says Equal Work Deserves Equal Pay

Press Release

U.S. House Representative Joyce Beatty (OH-03) released the following statement urging equal wages among men and women in the workplace.

Congresswoman Beatty raised her voice to stand up for women's suffrage in the workplace. April 9, 2013 marks the annual acknowledgement of National Equal Pay Day in America. This day signifies the amount of days a woman must work into the new year to earn as much as a man made the previous year. The resulting disparity affects hundreds of thousands of American families each year.

Today, women hold nearly half of our modern day jobs, and their earnings make up a substantial portion of household income. This income sustains American family's livelihoods, yet they still experience a gap in pay compared to men's wages for similar work. Presently, women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. But in 1963, when the Equal Pay Act was signed into law by President John F. Kennedy, women only earned an average of 59 cents on the dollar compared to men. Although there have been improvements in those 50 years, we still have strides to make.

"Today, tomorrow and in the future, we must continue the fight to advocate and to raise public awareness of unequal pay for women. As we saw in the case of Lilly Ledbetter, the fight for fair wages for women in the workplace is not yet over. Let's continue the fight, girded by courage, strength, wisdom and resilience to stand up for what's right when we see sex-based discrimination and push for the passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act."

Beatty and Ledbetter led a roundtable discussion on equal pay last year with Columbus Ohio women business leaders.

Source