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Statement

Year After Year, Equal Pay Day Is a Painful Reminder of Our Nation’s Punishing Wage Gap and the Great Harm It Causes

March 14, 2023
Workplace Justice, Paid Family & Medical Leave, Equal Pay, Reproductive Justice, Early Care & Education

Lisa Lederer, 202/371-1996

Statement of leaders of MomsRising, the online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families, on Equal Pay Day, the day that marks how far women in the United States must work in 2023 to catch up to what men were paid in 2022:

"Today, on Equal Pay Day, moms are reminding our elected leaders: The wage gap is unacceptable, unjust, and devastating to families’ economic security and to our economy. Unless Congress takes action, women will continue to lose $400,000 on average over the course of a 40-year career to the wage gap. 

“It is an outrage that women working full-time are paid just 84 cents on the dollar compared to men working full-time, moms are paid just 74 cents for every dollar paid to dads, and women and moms of color face even more devastating wage gaps. We will continue to fight until no one is shortchanged on her paycheck due to her gender or race.

“A new report from Moody Analytics estimates that at the current rate, it will take 132 years to close the economic gender gap worldwide. That cannot stand. We need action in our country now. Congress must pass the Paycheck Fairness Act to close loopholes in the nearly 60-year-old Equal Pay Act, invest in policies that root out structural racism and sexism in our nation, and build the care infrastructure the United States so urgently needs.”

-Statement of Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO, MomsRising

“Paid family and medical leave. Quality, affordable child care. An end to occupational segregation and maternal discrimination. Stronger penalties for wage discrimination. Measures to promote pay transparency. A minimum wage that is a living wage. Secure access to abortion care. A robust care infrastructure. These are the policies that will help end our shameful wage gap and boost our nation’s families and economy. Their passage should be a no-brainer for Congress. 

“President Biden demonstrated extraordinary leadership by including historic investments in the care infrastructure in his FY24 budget proposal, and Congress must follow suit by making those investments reality. That would be a huge step toward ending the wage gap once and for all and building an economy where everyone can thrive. Moms will continue to raise our voices until the wage gap is a thing of the past.”

-Statement of Taylor Austin, Campaign Manager, Workplace Justice, MomsRising

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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.