TUESDAY APRIL 4TH ‘EQUAL PAY DAY’-EQUITY PAY GAP AWARENESS

Posted on by Tonya R
Equal Pay Day
JFK Signs Equal Pay Act of 1963

Tuesday April 4, marks Equal Pay Day for 2017. A Tuesday in the month of April that symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year according to The National Committee on Pay Equity, who originated the ‘Equal Pay Day’ in 1996 as a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men’s and women’s wages. In June 1963, John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), calling it a “significant step forward”. The stipulation of the law states the following:

‘This law makes it illegal to pay different wages to men and women if they perform equal work in the same workplace. The law also makes it illegal to retaliate against a person because the person complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit’.

At the time the legislation was signed, women made 60% of what men made. So, just how far have we progressed? FightForFairPay.org offers the current statistics of women’s wages as a percentage of white men’s wages, identified in Tweet from Gail Sansbury @ggsansbury.


This electronic map in Tweet from Business Insider @BusinessInsider,  shows just how much less women make than men today, in every state.

How do we close the pay equity gap? What can citizens do? As an individual you can always contact your representative in Congress to voice your view, and of course vote accordingly in 2018. Visit National Committee On Pay Equity for more options, that include employer participation. ExpressYourselfBlog encourages everyone to find ways to Get Involved in all that matters to you, and impact real change.

For more information on pay equity, visit National Women’s Law Center to review their fact sheet titled, ‘How the Paycheck Fairness Act, Will Strengthen the Equal Pay Act’.

~ExpressYourselfBlog

Image: Courtesy of JKF Library