Tom Harkin: “today is Equal Pay Day. I mentioned that to someone earlier and they said: What does that mean? What that means is an…”

“today is Equal Pay Day. I mentioned that to someone earlier and they said: What does that mean? What that means is an American woman working full time in America today--I am talking about an average American woman working full time, year-round--had to work all last year and up to today of this year to earn what the average male made last year up to December 31. That is what Equal Pay Day is. Think about that. A man gets paid up to December 31, and a woman has to work all that year and up to today to get the same pay. It is shocking that in 2014 that is still happening in America-- shocking--because we passed the Equal Pay Act in 1963. In 1963, a woman made about 60 cents on the dollar for what a man made. Today, it is 77 cents, so I guess we can say we have made some headway. So 1963, 1973, 1983--in 40 years, we have gone from 60 cents to 77 cents. What we found out, through our committee hearings of the committee I am privileged to chair, the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, is that a lot of employers in this country are not abiding by some of the provisions of the Equal Pay Act. I compliment Senator Mikulski, who is a member of our committee as well as the Chair of the full Appropriations Committee, for her leadership in bringing this bill, the Paycheck Fairness Act, to the Senate. When we passed it in 1963, 25 million female workers, as I said, earned about 60 cents on the dollar. Now it is 77 cents.…”