$ $ $ EQUAL PAY – No, It is UNEQUAL pay $ $ 

by Teena Halbig, AAUW-Kentucky Public Policy Chair

March 31, 2020 marks Equal Pay Day.
However, far from a celebration, this day represents how long women, on average, had to work into 2020 to match what men earned in 2019. Nationally, women working full-time, year-round earned 82 cents for every dollar earned by men working full-time, year-round. On both the national and state levels, the wage gap is consistently worse for most women of color. Doesn’t this reflect how women’s work is too often undervalued and underpaid?

In this current moment, the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked an economic crisis, the effects of which are already being felt. About two-thirds of low wage workers are women, and it is these workers—particularly women of color—who are on the front lines of a society grappling with the outbreak. For example, grocery store workers and home health aides cannot do their work remotely, and while at work they are not easily able to limit contact with the public. These workers are risking their health and safety to serve the public during this crisis, and still the average woman working in one of these occupations earns less than her male counterpart.

The Paycheck Fairness Act was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives with bipartisan support in March 2019. Yet, the Senate has failed to even consider the act.

WE MUST DO SOMETHING!

You CAN contact YOUR senators in Washington to request SUPPORT for the Paycheck Fairness Act.

• Call U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell’s office in Washington – (202) 224-2541
• Call U.S. Senator Rand Paul’s Office in Washington – (202) 224-4343

Read more about Paycheck Fairness Act and the Ban Salary History law passed in Louisville on our Equal Pay Day page.