On the recordApril 9, 2013
Mr. Speaker, today, Tuesday, April 9, is Equal Pay Day because it symbolizes how far in 2013 women must work in order to make what their male counterparts earned in 2012. This means that it took more than 3 months in 2013 for women's wages to finally catch up to what men were paid in 2012. For working mothers who have to put food on the table and the retired women whose income is tied to their former salary, the wage gap means real dollars. Listen to this. In south Florida, if the wage gap was eliminated, a working woman would have enough money for 51 more weeks of food, 3 months more of mortgage and utility payments, 5 more months of rent, or 1,600 additional gallons of gas. Equal pay is about fairness and it's about families. ____________________