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From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues

Statement on Equal Pay Day

AFL-CIO

Linda Chavez-Thompson

1998

Last September, the AFL-CIO-which with 5 1/2 million women members is the largest organization of working women in the country-asked working women in every kind of job-in every part of the country-to tell us about the biggest problem they face at work.

Ninety-nine percent said a top concern is equal pay.

And most women told us that despite the economic good times, it is just as hard now as it was five years ago to make ends meet...or it’s become even harder.

The truth is that working women need and deserve equal pay. The wage gap between women and men is huge.

If it is not changed, the average 25-year-old working woman can expect to lose $523,000 over the course of her work life.

That’s enough to make a world of difference for most working families.

It can mean decent health care...a college education for the kids...a secure retirement...and simply being able to pay the monthly bills on time.

That is what the wage gap now takes from working women. It’s the price of unequal pay.

Patricia Hoersten knows what that’s about.

Pat served lunch and dinner at a diner in Lima, Ohio. She got paid half of what the male servers got paid-because her supervisor thought she only needed extra money, not money to live on.

The tragedy is that there are millions of women who are experiencing the very same injustice.

Is this a women’s issue?

It is-but it’s also a family issue, because women’s wages are essential to their families. Most working women contribute half or more of their household’s income.

So when working women lose out, working families lose out.

The good news is that working women are joining together to fight for equal pay. I’ve been able to hear from many of them.

One is Maria Olivas. She’s a clerical worker at Columbia University.

Maria worked with her union to make sure that her employer disclosed how much it paid men and women for the same job. They found out that men were paid $1,500 more than women for the same job. After a long struggle, they were able to win equal pay.

There are lots more like her.

Grocery store clerks at Publix Supermarkets won $80 million in back pay because they were not getting equal pay and promotions.

But no woman should have to fight by herself for equal pay.

That’s why the AFL-CIO has launched a nationwide grassroots campaign to fight for women’s wages.

That’s why the union movement is making equal pay one of the main goals of our 1998 Agenda for Working Families.

And that’s why the AFL-CIO applauds, supports, and will work to enact the legislation being introduced by Senator Tom Daschle and Representative Rosa DeLauro.

This legislation will give women an important weapon to battle wage discrimination and to help close the wage gap. It’s about time.

Source: Reprinted by permission of the AFL-CIO.

* * * * *

Community organizer and educator Amalia Anderson was born in Guatemala of Mayan descent, and has developed programs to assist Latino youth. This 2006 article was first published in Plains Speaking and reprinted in Demos-Around the Kitchen Table.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
"Statement On Equal Pay Day." From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, edited by Suzanne O’Dea, Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Suffrage3e_1062.
APA 7th
Statement on Equal Pay Day. From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, In S. O’Dea (Ed.), Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Suffrage3e_1062.
CMOS 17th
"Statement On Equal Pay Day." From Suffrage to the Senate America's Political Women: An Encyclopedia of Leaders, Causes & Issues, Edited by Suzanne O’Dea. Salem Press, 2019. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Suffrage3e_1062.