On Equal Pay Day, Maloney Calls for Passage of Paycheck Fairness Act and Paid Family Leave

Press Release

With the wage gap growing for women in the Hudson Valley, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney called for the passage of both the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act. Today, Equal Pay Day, symbolizes when, more than three months into the year, women's wages finally catch up to what men were paid in the previous year. According to the most recent statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, the median earnings for U.S. women working full time, year round were just 78 percent of U.S. men's median earnings; however, in the Hudson Valley, women earned only 74% compared to their male counterpart, the largest gap of all districts in New York.

"More than 50 years after President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, the wage gap in the Hudson Valley is growing for hardworking women -- we have to reverse this trend. Women in the Hudson Valley are more likely to be the breadwinners and caretakers; our families and economy suffer when women are paid less than men. We have a lot of work left to do to ensure that my daughters have full economic security and equal opportunities - it's time for our country to stop putting up barriers to women's economic opportunity and invest in the women and girls who will lead us into the next century."

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