WUNRN
American Association of University
Women
And then, five days later, some of them turned right around and blocked the
bill from moving out of the debate phase and onto a final up-or down vote.
This was no last-minute change of heart: It's the same partisan bickering and
abuse of procedural rules that we've seen time and time again. This time, the
gridlock stings even more than usual because it came just one day before the
U.S. Census Bureau released new data about the gender pay gap.
And guess what the data said? No significant change in the gender wage gap.
Again.
Honestly, we weren't holding our breath that the new data would show a huge
decrease in the gender pay gap. While that would have been terrific, the pay
gap between men and women has held steady for the last decade and shows little
sign of going away without some serious changes in both federal law and social
attitudes.
What really gets me is that we've got a gender pay gap that has barely
budged in more than 10 years, and a Senate that refuses to vote on legislation
that could make a real difference in finally shrinking that number.
Your senators need to hear how you feel about their votes. If they
supported the bill, thank them for standing for women, and strengthen their
resolve to keep fighting for fair pay. If they chose gridlock over real change
for women and working families, make sure they know how wrong they are.
Find out how your senators voted and send them a message by entering your
zip code below!
We need the Paycheck Fairness Act to bring the Equal Pay Act of 1963 into the
21st century. The Senate’s failure to end Mad-men era policies has significant,
real-world implications for millions of American women and their families.
The latest Census data says what it always says: Today women face a gender pay
gap at every education level and in every occupation, and the gap is worse for
mothers and women of color.
Even when comparing "apples to apples" and controlling for all
factors known to affect earnings, AAUW researchers still found a 7 percent
unexplainable pay gap between men and women just one year out of college – and
7 percent is no small change.
Gender pay discrimination isn't a myth; it's math. And the wage gap isn't just
a number. It represents real dollars and cents that translates into less money
for food, gas, housing, education, child care… the list goes on. All workers
deserve the chance to succeed, and hard work deserves equal pay. It's just that
simple. It's not a partisan issue, and it shouldn't be. It is simply the right
thing to do.
Make sure your senators know you were watching the Paycheck Fairness Act
vote! They need to know that this issue isn't going away – and that we are
certainly not going away either.
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