Equal Pay Day

Tomorrow, April 12, 2011, is the next Equal Pay Day. This date symbolizes how far into 2011 women must work to earn what men earned in 2010. The National Committee on Pay Equity started Equal Pay Day in 1996 as a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men’s and women’s wages. 


Despite the strides women have made in terms of higher education, the average woman only earns 77 cents to their male counterpart’s dollar, which works out to be a difference of more than $10,600 a year. The gap is even more substantial when both gender and race are factored in together. 


The National Committee on Pay Equity asks that folks wear red to work tomorrow to symbolize how far women and minorities are “in the red” with their pay.  


Something even more significant we can do is try to encourage support of the Paycheck Fairness Act. It was introduced in January 2009  by the then-Senator Hillary Clinton and Rep. Rosa DeLauro to strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963.