Brian Jones: “I rise to talk about the issues of fairness, of equality, and of basic dignity. In the greatest Nation on Earth and the…”

“I rise to talk about the issues of fairness, of equality, and of basic dignity. In the greatest Nation on Earth and the leader of the free world, women are paid 80 cents for every dollar paid to men--80 cents for every dollar. That disparity is starker yet for women of color. Black women are paid 61 cents on the dollar. Latina women are paid just 53 cents on the dollar. Alabama, my home State, has the fourth biggest gender wage gap of any State in the country. That is just inexcusable. Those cents add up to real money, about $10,000 on average for every woman working a full-time year-round job. That is a total of about $900 million lost each year for American women--every single year, a total of $900 million. That is real money, and that is increasing. This gap persists regardless of education status and across different jobs, opportunities, and industries. It persists despite laudable efforts here in Congress over the past 50 years to start chipping away at this problem. Most importantly, these lost wages impact women's ability to pay their rent or mortgages, to save for their children's college tuition, or to pay off existing debt. Think about this. This disparity can have lifelong consequences for the quality of life of women and their families. Fortunately, there are steps we can take that have already had tremendous support. I want to bring this home a little bit because we were looking at some statistics recently.…”