To Help Restore Equal Pay for Women, Raise the Minimum Wage and Pass Paycheck Fairness Now

Statement

To mark Equal Pay Day, a day that represents how far into the year women must work to match the amount men earned during the last calendar year, U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez) today issued the following statement:

"It is an embarrassment that in this day and age, full-time working women in this country still earn 23 percent less, on average, than their male counterparts. Paying people less because of their gender is morally unjust, clearly. But it is more than that -- it weakens our economy.

"Congress should act now to help reduce the wage gap, and we can do so by enacting the Paycheck Fairness Act to restore the promise of equal pay for equal work, and by raising the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10, which research has shown will help close the gender pay gap, reduce poverty among women and their families, and put more money in the pockets of millions of hard-working women.

"No one who works full time should have to raise their family in poverty, and that's particularly true for the women across our country who are disproportionately working in low-wage jobs. By giving them critical tools to fight pay discrimination and raising the wage floor so that they can afford to feed and clothe their families, we would go a long way to restoring the promise of the American dream.

"President Obama was right in acting today to prohibit retaliation against federal contractors who allow women to find out about the wage gaps affecting them, and require the collection of contractor wage data that includes race and gender information. Together, these executive orders will encourage greater pay transparency, offer workers more ways to uncover violations of equal pay laws, and enable workers to seek appropriate remedies. The President is setting an excellent example for all employers."

Source