The research was conducted by the National Partnership for Women & Families, in conjunction with the American Association of University Women (AAUW). The reports span all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The full set is available at www.nationalpartnership.org/epd
"This new data illustrate the very real harm unequal wages are doing to America’s working families,” said Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families. “It is long past time to close the gender-based wage gap. With women playing an increasingly important role as family breadwinners, there is no time to waste."
The majority of working mothers in the U.S. now bring in at least a quarter of their families’ earnings, and nearly 14.5 million households nationwide are headed by women. Yet nationally, women working full-time are still paid an average of only 77 cents for every dollar paid to full-time working men. The gap has been closing at a rate of less than half a cent per year since the passage of the 1963 Equal Pay Act. At that pace, working women won’t come close to being paid the same amount as men until 2058 — when the high school students of today will be preparing for retirement.
"This research proves that the gender pay gap is not simply a numbers issue or a women’s issue," said AAUW Executive Director Linda Hallman, CAE. "It’s a bread and butter issue. It’s an everyday issue for people who are trying to support their families and provide for their futures. No more lip service, it's time to act."
"Unless lawmakers and employers make eliminating the wage gap a priority once and for all, generations of women and their families are going to continue to suffer due to unfair pay and discrimination," Ness explained. "That’s why the re-introduction of the Paycheck Fairness Act in Congress today is so important. This legislation is critically important to efforts to end wage discrimination and ensuring that working women are paid fairly."
The Paycheck Fairness Act, which would close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act and establish stronger workplace protections for women, was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in the last Congress but fell two votes short of moving forward in the Senate last year. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) will re-introduce it today in recognition of Equal Pay Day — the day that marks how far into the new year women must work in order to catch up with what men were paid the year before.
For example, these are figures from New York
New York: Working Women and the State’s Wage Gap
In New York, on average, a woman working full time is paid $40,584 per year, while a man working full time is paid $49,174 per year. This creates a wage gap of $8,590 between full-time working men and women in the state.
What does the wage gap mean for working women in New York?
As a group, full-time working women in New York lose approximately $22,340,027,689 each year due to the wage gap.ii If the wage gap were eliminated, New York’s working women and their families would have enough money for:
• 64 more weeks of food (1.2 years’ worth);
• 4.4 more months of mortgage and utilities payments;
• 9 more months of rent;
• 3 more years of family health insurance premiums;
• More than 2,000 additional gallons of gas.
The women of New York are increasingly responsible for the economic security of their families and cannot afford to face discrimination and lower wages.
• More than 63 percent of working mothers in New York bring in more than a quarter of their
families’ income,viii and 1,050,106 households in New York are headed by women.
• More than 26 percent of women-headed households in New York live below the poverty level.
Eliminating the wage gap would provide critical income to 279,328 families living in poverty.
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