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Statement

On Equal Pay Day, MomsRising Calls for Passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act

April 12, 2016
Equal Pay

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

STATEMENT OF KRISTIN ROWE-FINKBEINER, Executive Director & CEO of MomsRising.org, On Equal Pay Day
“It’s Equal Pay Day again. The day when women will have earned the same amount men did in the previous year. That means that on average, it takes women 15 months to earn what men make in 12. It takes women of color and mothers even longer. That’s just shameful.
 
“It is more than 50 years after the Equal Pay Act became law, and women are only earning, on average, 79 cents to every dollar white men earn. The wage gap for Black and Latina women is even greater - 60 and 55 cents respectively, for every dollar their white male counterparts earn. And moms take an even bigger hit. In fact maternal status is now a greater predictor of wage and hiring discrimination than gender.
 
“In today’s society, where moms are often the primary or only breadwinner, this discrimination hurts our nation’s families. It also hurts our consumer-driven economy because moms also make most of the purchases for their families.
 
“We need national legislation and we need it now. The Paycheck Fairness Act has been introduced year after year and still has not been passed by Congress. This crucial legislation would: deter wage discrimination by strengthening penalties for equal pay violations and by prohibiting retaliation against workers who ask about employers' wage practices or disclose their own wages; empower women to negotiate for equal pay; strengthen federal outreach, education and enforcement efforts; and create stronger incentives for employers to follow the law.
 
“The Paycheck Fairness Act would go a long way toward eliminating the wage gap, giving everyone a chance to succeed and bolstering our economy by supporting working families.  
 
“Studies show that moving forward family economic security policies -- like paid family leave, affordable childcare and healthcare, and earned sick days -- helps close the wage gap. MomsRising is building momentum for all of these policies and it's time to advance them at the national level to boost our families and our economy.”
 

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.