On the recordApril 4, 2017
The gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) may be joining us on the floor in a few minutes to talk about her proposal. I have an article written by Ms. DeLauro that I include in the Record. [From Cosmopolitan, Apr. 4, 2017] We Will Win the Fight for Equal Pay (By Rosa DeLauro) Think about 20 cents. It doesn't feel very significant-- there isn't much you could buy with it. But over a lifetime, those 20 cents add up in a major way. Today, we have reached yet another Equal Pay Day--the day on which the average woman's earnings finally catch up to what the average man made last year. This year's Equal Pay Day falls 94 days into 2017--94 days too late. Women are nearly half the workforce--yet they still only earn about 80 cents on average, to a man's dollar. The gap widens even further when you consider women of color-- African-American women make 63 cents on the dollar, while Latinas make only 54 cents on average, compared with what white men earn. This is unacceptable. The National Women's Law Center found that based on today's wage gap, a woman starting her career now will lose $418,800 over a 40-vear career. For African-Americans, the losses are $840,040. And for Latinas, the lifetime gap is over $1 million. These disparities exist at all levels of education and occupation--even at the very top. The world champion U.S.…
