Equal Pay Day marks the amount of time women have to work to catch up to what men earned in 2016
(Washington, D.C.) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) joined Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) today marked Equal Pay Day and reintroduced the Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation that would strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and guarantee that women can challenge pay discrimination and hold employers accountable.
Equal Pay Day symbolizes the date when women’s wages finally catch up to what men were paid in the previous year. Despite making up half the workforce, more than five decades after the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, American women still make only 80 cents, on average, for every dollar earned by a man. The gap is even wider for women of color, with African American women making 63 cents on the dollar, and Hispanic women making only 54 cents, on average, compared with white men.
The Paycheck Fairness Act would strengthen and close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act of 1963 by holding employers accountable for discriminatory practices, ending the practice of pay secrecy, easing workers’ ability to individually or jointly challenge pay discrimination, and strengthening the available remedies for wronged employees. The House legislation was introduced by Congresswoman DeLauro and has 198 cosponsors.
Original Senate cosponsors include Senators Schumer (D-NY), Durbin (D-IL), Menendez (D-NJ), Coons (D-DE), Brown (D-OH), Udall (D-NM), Casey (D-PA), Baldwin (D-WI), Van Hollen (D-MD), Shaheen (D-NH), Gillibrand (D-NY), Klobuchar (D-MN), Hirono (D-HI), Feinstein (D-CA), Manchin (D-WV), Heinrich (D-NM), Blumenthal (D-CT), Leahy (D-VT), Booker (D-NJ), Reed (D-RI), Sanders (I-VT), Warren (D-MA), Stabenow (D-MI), Carper (D-DE), Whitehouse (D-RI), McCaskill (D-MO), Cantwell (D-WA), Franken (D-MN), Warner (D-WA), Harris (D-CA), Murphy (D-CT), Nelson (D-FL), Wyden (D-OR), Kaine (D-VA), Hassan (D-NH), Merkley (D-OR), Tester (D-MT), Duckworth (D-IL), and Bennet (D-CO).
