Why Equal Pay Is Key to Fighting Poverty

by M G · 2010-03-13 07:00:00 UTC
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On Thursday, the Senate held a hearing on the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would strengthen laws against wage discrimination based on gender or other factors and would eliminate employers' ability to retaliate against workers for discussing their salaries, a terrible practice in which too many companies still engage. Currently, women across all education and wage levels make an average of 77 cents for every dollar earned by men in equal jobs. If you're a woman of color, you'll make even less on the dollar: just 68 cents if you're black and 58 cents in you're Latina. The Paycheck Fairness Act has already been passed by the House, so the Senate has a chance to make a real difference in the lives of many poor women.

Too often, equal pay stories that make it to the newspaper involve high-level female office executives who learn they are paid less than their male counterparts. Obviously wage discrimination is abhorrent in any form, but low-wage female workers can suffer even more than higher-paid ones -- the difference between $10 and $7.50 an hour can mean a lot more than the difference between $125,000 and $120,000 a year. The injustice is compounded by the fact that women, especially poor ones, are increasingly likely to be their family's main breadwinner (four out of 10 meet that criteria), whether because they make more than their husbands or because they're raising a family on their own. More than a quarter of single mothers are poor, so the wage gap affects them disproportionately.

A rare bright spot for women during this recession is that they are less likely to be laid off than men are. But unfortunately for two-parent families, that just means that wage discrimination hurts the entire family: then they have to live on the mother's lower salary instead of the father's higher one. And if women can be punished by discriminating bosses for asking male co-workers about their salaries, they won't be able to fight for what is rightfully theirs. The Paycheck Fairness Act probably can't solve the stubbornly persistent wage gap single-handedly, but that doesn't mean it's not worth pursuing. As women take on a greater responsibility for supporting their families, poor women can't afford to put up with discrimination any longer.

Photo credit: FaceMePLS

M G was most recently a staff reporter for The Washington Post, covering philanthropy and nonprofits, education and the war in Iraq.
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