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Guest Column
Equal Pay Day battles workplace discrimination
By RUTH HOOCK
Published April 25, 2006
Today is Equal Pay Day, the day when people around the country recognize the wage gap between working women and men. April is the month that symbolizes how far into the new year a woman must work to earn the wages paid to a man in the previous year. Equal Pay Day today is observed to symbolize the day when women's wages catch up to men's wages from the previous week. The National Committee on Pay Equity was founded in 1979 to work to eliminate sex and race-based wage discrimination and to seek pay equity. This year women are projected to make up 48 percent of the labor force. The median earnings of women working full time year-round will be 77 percent of men's median earnings last year. The wage gap in America still exists for working women. The wage gap isn't just a women's issue. Equal pay for women raises family income and the whole family benefits. Nationwide, working families lose $200-billion of income annually to the wage gap. At the current rate, equal pay won't be realized until 2050. This important issue affects all working women. Latinas earn 56 cents and African-American women earn 68 cents for every dollar men earn, while Asian-American and Pacific Islander women earn 80 cents. Because women, on average, earn less, they must work longer for the same pay. This wage gap affects women throughout their working lives and then follows them into retirement, where they receive lower pension and Social Security benefits based on the salaries they received while working. The wage disparity costs the average American woman and her family an estimated $523,000 in lost wages over her working lifetime. You can help solve the wage disparity in America by contacting the National Committee on Pay Equity at www.pay-equity.org/ Joining the Red Purse Society also will help assist with activities and projects related to the wage gap. The organization Business and Professional Women asks everyone to wear red on Equal Pay Day today to symbolize how far women and minorities are "in the red" when it comes to pay. Ruth Hoock is president-elect of Hernando County Business and Professional Women. She lives in Spring Hill.
[Last modified April 25, 2006, 03:13:41]
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