Andre Carson: “I rise in support of the Equal Pay Day. The Equal Pay Act became public law in 1963, making it illegal to pay women…”

“I rise in support of the Equal Pay Day. The Equal Pay Act became public law in 1963, making it illegal to pay women lower rates for the same job strictly on the basis of sex. Yet, almost four decades later, the wage gap among women and men persists. It is appalling that in the year 2002, women across the United States continue to be discriminated against on the basis of gender. Women holding similar jobs with similar education, skills, work experience, job content, still earn less than men. The Census Bureau reports that women earn 27 cents less than men on the dollar. Why would I bring this up, other than it being Equal Pay Day, Mr. Speaker? There has been a lot of commentary here on the floor of the House about welfare and welfare reform, and truly, women want not to draw welfare, but rather to get into the marketplace and be economically self-sufficient. Yet, we find just in Indiana, in a glance at Indiana, that the African American women earn only 67 percent of what men earn, and the earnings among Latino women fall even lower, earning 58 percent of what men earn. Three-quarters of African American women and Latinos work in just three types of employment: sales, clerical, and service and factory jobs, and a majority of those women do not even make enough money to reach the poverty line for a family of four, which is $18,000 in the year 2002.”