Equal Pay Day: Women Still Only Making Cents to the Male Dollar

Sigh ... it's Equal Pay Day again, which means that American women have finally earned as much as their male counterparts for 2010. That's right: because women make only about three-fourths of what men do for the same work, they'd need to work for over fifteen months to earn an equivalent amount. Bringing us to today, April 12.

This 23 cent discrepancy doesn't take into consideration the situation of women of color, who make even less on the white male dollar. Or the added discrimination against mothers. But the message remains the same: women continue to await the day when they can celebrate making the yearly salary they deserve on New Year's Eve. What could hasten this day along? Barring everybody in the United States suddenly having a light-bulb go off over their heads and realizing that unequal pay is wrong, the Paycheck Fairness Act represents a good place to pin our hopes.

The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has a petition on Change.org calling upon Congress to finally pass this bill, which would update fair pay laws dated to about half a century ago. By protecting women who stand up for fair wages from retaliation and requiring businesses to justify significant discrepancy in how they pay men and women, the Paycheck Fairness Act would create an equitable environment where women and their male allies could take strides toward wage equality.

AAUW also has a toolkit on their website with ideas for taking action on behalf of equal pay, from holding a workshop on improving wage negotiation skills, to checking equal pay practices in your workplace, to pressuring your local mayor or city council to declare today Equal Pay Day (you can use Change.org's handy petition tool for this one!).

"It is time to recognize that the women’s movement is stalled," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) writes on MomsRising.com, as one of a series of posts by concerned members of Congress today. "We have spent the last decade fighting to protect the hard fought gains of my mother’s generation. This is not good enough. We need to be moving forward." I already have a special place in my heart for Gillibrand, who is both my home state's senator and a graduate of my own alma mater, but with kickass statements like this one she really inspires me.

Help women move forward: sign the petition for the Paycheck Fairness Act. It's time for all women to have a little more change in their pockets.

Photo credit: bfick