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Rep. Wild Marks Equal Pay Day and Calls for Enactment of the Paycheck Fairness Act

March 24, 2021

As we mark Equal Pay Day on March 24, Rep. Wild joined the House Committee on Education and Labor mark-up of the Paycheck Fairness Act. Wild said that more needs to be done to close the wage gap that still exists between men and women – including passage of the critical Paycheck Fairness Act.

"I appreciate the opportunity we have here today – on Equal Pay Day – to send a strong message to America's women that equal work deserves equal pay," said Rep. Wild. "It's that simple, and we won't accept anything else. I'm proud to cosponsor the Paycheck Fairness Act and to have supported this bill on the House floor last Congress in a bipartisan vote.

"Casting that vote, I thought of my mother, who worked an entire career at a time when that was rare for a woman and who was a lifelong union member. I picketed with her at one time on the picket line, and she taught me that justice only comes when working people band together and demand it. And in casting my vote last year, I also thought of my daughter—who is at the beginning of her career—and the future of opportunity and equality that I want her to experience.

"Each and every woman deserves a fair paycheck. But more than that, when we restrict the potential and opportunity of women, we restrict the potential of our communities and our economy. Our work towards a stronger economy and a fairer society starts today by approving this bill to ensure that women have the dignity and justice of equal pay for equal work. I urge my colleagues to join me in this fight."

Each year, Equal Pay Day symbolizes when, almost three months into the year, women's wages finally catch up to what men were paid in the previous year. Fifty-eight years after the 1963 Equal Pay Act was enacted, the latest data show that nationwide full-time working women still earn only 82 cents, on average, for every dollar a man earns, amounting to a yearly gender gap of $10,157 between full-time working men and women. The gap is even larger for women of color - with, on average, Black women earning just 63 cents, Native American women just 60 cents and Latinas just 55 cents for every dollar a white, non-Hispanic man earns.

Rep. Wild's full remarks are available here.

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