Take Action for Equal Pay Day: Tell Congress to Pass the Paycheck Fairness Act

by Aimee Sea · 2010-04-20 09:43:00 UTC
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Confession: much of my national political awareness in high school developed from my love of The West Wing. I won't sing its praises, but I will reference an exchange between staffers Sam and Ainsley after Ainsley reveals, much to Sam's horror, that she doesn't support the Equal Rights Amendment. 'Cause, honestly, is there a better way to make a political point besides quoting The West Wing?

When Sam jokes they should pay women less money than men since there's no law against that, Ainsley references the Equal Pay Act, passed when women were making less than 60 cents to the dollar. "What are you making now?" "Seventy-nine cents." "So, everything's fine."

No, everything is not fine. Today, according to the National Women's Law Center, the wage gap ranges from 63% in Wyoming to 93% in Washington D.C. And we're not the only one's with pay equity problems. Per the Penguin Atlas of Women in the World, pay disparity ranges from the dismal 50% in Bangladesh to the doing-quite-well 99% and 95% in Turkey and El Salvador, respectively.

Besides immigrating to Istanbul, what are we going to do about this? Today, across the web we are blogging for fair pay for Equal Pay Day 2010. (April 20 is how far into 2010 women must work to earn what their male counterparts did in 2009.) Here at Change.org I'm also asking you to take action by signing this petition to ask your Senators to support the Paycheck Fairness Act, which will close the "factor other than sex" loophole in the Equal Pay Act, thus ensuring that employers cannot value the work of men and women differently unless there is "a legitimate business reason for doing so."

Aimee Sea is a proud New Englander who blogs about global women's rights and whatever else happens to catch her eye.

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