Paycheck Fairness Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, this year marks the 58th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act. Despite the goal to ensure equality for women in the workplace, nearly 60 years later, the pay gap still exists.

Women today, on average, make 82 cents for every dollar earned by a man. For women of color, the disparity is worse, with Black women making 63 cents on the dollar, AAPI women making 60 cents, and Latinas making 55 cents.

This disparity is unacceptable, and it is unfair.

Let us come together right now to pass H.R. 7, the Paycheck Fairness Act.

When women get equal pay, our families and our entire economy will do better.

I include in the Record a letter from the United Church of Christ in favor of H.R. 7. United Church of Christ

Dear Representative: We are writing to ask for your support in passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 7), and to ensure that passage in the House is done without amendments that diminish the protections provided by the bill.

There is ample evidence to show that despite equal pay laws, the gender pay gap exists. These lost earnings add up to a loss of over $400,000 in a lifetime. The wage gap is even more significant for women of color with Black women working full time making only 63 cents for every dollar paid to men, Native American women only 60 cents, and Latinas only 55 cents, for every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts.

As people of faith, we believe that each person deserves to be treated with dignity and humanity. When women are paid less for the same work that is a concrete and explicit way of showing that their work and personhood are valued less. Passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act will strengthen and update the Equal Pay Act and provide women with the legal means to fight the gender pay gap and challenge gender pay discrimination.

The work done by women, and particularly Black and brown women, is undervalued and underpaid. Even though much of that labor is what keeps people fed, clothed, and cared for. The work of women, so important to how a society functions is always relegated to less pay and less value. This is a gross injustice--and part of the systemic racist structures that undergird the economic system in the United States. God's vision for our world is one where all are valued, no matter their gender, race, or credo.

We urge you to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act without harmful amendments that weaken its critical protections. The United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries

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