It’s Equal Pay Day. Again. Every year on a Tuesday in April we recognize Equal Pay Day. Tuesday because a women would have to work a full week and then two more days to earn as much as a man earned in one week. April because a woman would have to work a full year and then four more months to earn what a man earned in one year.
Women who work full-time are paid on average just .77 cents for every dollar a man in the same job earns. That translates to a $10,622 gap in median earnings between men and women. The gap is even greater for non-white women.
Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money for:
- the 9.9 million families that are headed by single mothers and rely on women’s wages
- the 1.9 million married couples with children who depend solely on women’s earnings
- the 15 million married couples with children who need both parents’ earnings
- me, the sole breadwinner for my family.
For some, that $10,622 is a matter of survival. Thirty-seven percent of women-headed families with children are poor according to the National Women’s Law Center. They could use that money for groceries, rent, childcare, diapers and healthcare.
For more fortunate families like mine, $10,622 could be used for home improvements, a real vacation for my deserving children, investment in my 401k or my children’s college funds, dinner out with the family. In other words, I could invest that $10,622 into the economy. Actually, if wages were equal, I could invest more than that $10,622 because I live in Massachusetts where women only earn on average 76.5 cents for every dollar a man earns. And yes, I would treat myself to a new pair of shoes every now and again.
Women writers and activists are blogging, tweeting and speaking out for equal pay today and that’s great. But it’s time for the mostly male CEOs at the major consumer packaged good companies, the local merchants, the tradesmen who’s business are suffering as a result of the recession, to join in the fight for equal pay. If women were paid equal wages, those men would see an increase in business.
Equal pay is not just a woman’s issue. This is not just a family issue. The gender wage gap affects every single American. Let’s close it together.
Click here to send a letter to your legislators demanding fair pay.
(Graphic from lickingcalcutta.blogpsot.com used with Creative Commons license i46.photobucket.com/…/Feminism/d36cdcef.jpg.)
