Political Quotes

“as we have heard all day, today is Equal Pay Day. What does that mean? That means that today is the first day women in the workforce--if we separated male and female workers--would actually get a paycheck in the year. That is pretty remarkable, and it is a disparity we have been working on for decades in this country but still have not achieved the parity that we believe is absolutely essential if we are going to be a family-friendly and forward-looking country with a growing and prosperous middle class. I think way too often the issue of pay equity--the issue of equal pay--is characterized as a woman's issue. It is characterized as something that only elite women care about, and it is characterized as something that is not something for the government to address. Well, I am here to dispel all of those myths. I think we can only fairly say that by shortchanging women, employers are also shortchanging working families. Families need a full salary so they can put food on their table and make sure children have the medical care they deserve. We have all heard the stark statistic that nationally women only earn 79 percent of what White, non-Hispanic males are paid. In North Dakota, the numbers are even more dramatic. The pay equity there is 71 percent. Women earn just 71 percent of what men make in my State. It is unacceptable.…”