April 25 was Equal Pay Day, when women’s wages finally equaled their male colleagues’ earnings of the previous year. American women continue to make 77 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earn.
The WAGE (Women Are Getting Even) Project, which is dedicated to closing the pay gap, announced a new grassroots campaign that aims to create smaller WAGE Clubs across the country, where women can meet to discuss the wage gap and strategize on how to eliminate it within 10 years. At a press conference to announce the new campaign, WAGE Project President Dr. Evelyn Murphy stated, “Women will not wait another 40 years for equal payÉThe wage gap won’t go away unless women take action to change it.”
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) have sponsored the Paycheck Fairness Act in both houses of Congress to address the pay gap. In a statement released on Equal Pay Day, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA), a supporter of the Act, noted, “Economic equity and self-sufficiency are essential to achieving the American dream. It is outrageous that women begin the quest to achieve that dream already at a deficitÉIt is a matter of justice and of common sense, and working women deserve nothing less.”
