On the recordJune 7, 2021
finally, on paycheck fairness, tomorrow, the Senate will decide whether to take up legislation to address the gender pay gap. Right now in America, women earn, roughly, 82 cents for every dollar a man makes. The gap is even wider for women of color. Even when you account for educational attainment, Black and Latina women earn only 65 to 70 percent of what a White man makes with the same degree, whether it is a bachelor's degree or an advanced degree. Many women with advanced degrees actually make less than their male counterparts who don't have them. So, looking at the facts, women with the same jobs, the same degrees--sometimes better degrees than their male colleagues-- are making less money. That is the very definition of gender discrimination, and it is holding back women in every industry and area of the country. The pandemic has only made matters worse. Faced with impossible choices between careers and childcare, women have fallen out of the workforce at an alarming rate. By one measure, the COVID-19 pandemic has set women's labor force participation back by more than 30 years, leading some economists to describe the 2020 year not as a recession but as a ``she-cession.'' So there is a lot of work to do to not only recover from a devastating year for women in the workplace but also establish an equal playing field where women are paid what they deserve.…





