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Equal Pay
NWPC
Supports Equal Pay for Equal
Work
Facts:
Recent figures show that full time, year round working women earn only 72 cents for each dollar a man earns. The picture is even worse for women of color: according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the figures were 65 cents for African-American women and 52 cents for Hispanic women. Pay discrepancies cross virtually all occupations and are not limited to lower-level jobs.
According to the AFL-CIO, America’s working families lose, on average, more than $4,000 per year because of unequal pay, even after accounting for differences in education, age, location and number of hours worked. Based on this analysis, over a lifetime of work, the average 25-year old woman who works full time can expect to earn $523,000 less than the average working man.
Four decades after passage of the Equal Pay Act, which prohibits paying wages based on sex, and Title VII, which outlaws discriminatory employment practices, we still have a long way to go to achieve genuine pay equity between the sexes.
How NWPC
acts:
NWPC, along
with the AFL-CIO and the National Committee on
Pay Equity, participated in a
year-long campaign to pass the Paycheck
Fairness Act to toughen penalties for
equal pay violations and step up
enforcement.
NWPC also
actively encourages women to seek employment
in traditionally male occupations
that generally pay more than traditional
female occupations.
Educate yourself about current laws that mandate equal pay.
Vote for political leaders who advocate for stronger laws and ensure that the EEOC and federal and state compliance programs receive adequate funding.
Encourage the companies you work for or in which you invest to conduct surveys and comparison studies regularly to ascertain and correct pay discrepancies and their causes.
As you advance in your career, be sure that those who follow you are treated fairly.