April 9th is ‘Equal Pay Day’ symbolizing how far past the new year women must work in order to simply receive the same salary men earn in only 12 months.

BARBARA GAULT via Caroline Dobuzinskis
Gault is vice president and executive director of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. She said today: “While women are starting to make gains with good earnings in many occupations women are still more than twice as likely as men to work in occupations with poverty wages. Even when working the same jobs, women tend to earn less than men leading to less economic security for women and their families.”

JEFFREY HAYES, PH.D. via Caroline Dobuzinskis
Hayes is a senior research associate at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. He said today: “According to our research, it will take another 45 years to close the wage gap between women and men. Progress on this issue has stalled and more programs and policies are needed to ensure that women are not receiving lower pay for doing the same work as men.”

MICHELE LEBER
Leber is chair of the National Committee on Pay Equity. She said today: “When the National Committee on Pay Equity established Equal Pay Day in 1996, women earned 74 cents for eavery dollar men earned, based on the median wages of all full-time, year-round workers as reported by the Census Bureau. In the latest Census figures, women earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn – not much progress in 17 years. We urge Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act (S.84, H.R.377) to strengthen and update the Equal Pay Act signed into law nearly 50 years ago and to help close the wage gap.”