Pay Equity Day Observance

It is difficult to imagine that 50 years ago President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law on June 10, 1963 and yet we still face pay inequality for women. A cornerstone of advocacy for the American Association of University Women (AAUW), which began the pay equity fight nearly 120 years ago. In spite of these efforts and the leadership of AAUW in this valiant fight, women still trail behind. The protections of the Equal Pay Act and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act do not erase the gap that starts from college graduation because they have not been enacted. 

AAUW’s latest research report, Graduating to a Pay Gap, found that just one year out of college, women are paid, on average, 82 cents for every dollar paid to their male peers. There is pending legislation, called The Paycheck Fairness Act, that has the potential to close loopholes that have kept the Equal Pay Act of 1963 from fully protecting and advancing pay equality.

Among other things, the Paycheck Fairness Act would require employers to show that pay disparity is truly related to job performance and requirements, not gender. It also would strengthen remedies for pay discrimination and prohibit retaliation against workers who disclose their wages to co-workers.If you would like to know more about what actions you can take as an individual, please visit our website – www.aauw.org.

Tamara Rogers

Manatee County Branch AAUW

Public Policy Committee