$500 Billion: Gender Pay Gap Is Bigger than You ThinK

It is a well known fact that in the US women– regardless of economic status— are paid less than men. Gender pay gap is real.

Overall, women make 78 cents for every $1 earned by a man, with African American and Hispanic women earning far less. Over one woman’s lifetime, that is a significant amount of money. Across the country, that pay gap costs American women $500 billion per year, according to a new report from the National Partnership for Women and Families. On an individual basis the report findings break down like this:

To put it in individual terms, if women earned as much as men, each woman with a full-time job would be able to afford an additional seven months of mortgage and utilities, or 1.6 years worth of food, annually.

Tuesday, April 12, is Equal Pay Day, which was created to draw attention to gender pay gap, which has remained basically the same since 2001. Women will not have equality until we have control over our own bodies, equal pay for equal work, an equal voice in government and the Equal Rights Amendment.

For background on gender pay gap, check out:

Wage Gap Costs U.S. Women $500 Billion A Year, Report Finds

Women Can’t Wait for 2059 for Equal Pay

Factbox: Equal Pay Day spotlights stubborn wage gap between the sexes

Equality and Paycheck Fairness for women and minorities, including racial and ethnic groups and the LGBTQ community, is a primary component of my campaign. As long as large segments of our population make significantly less than the prevailing wage (which is already too low), our area will not thrive.

This morning on KUAZ they aired a short clip about gender pay gap in Arizona and happily reported that for Arizona women was not as bad as the national statistic. They reported that Arizona women make a whopping 84 cents for every dollar earned by an Arizona man. Sounds good, right? That’s only $7000/year difference for the average woman worker. (I’m sure there are many Arizona women who would like an extra $7000/year.) Two important points were left out of the KUAZ story:

The smaller pay gap between men and women in Arizona is not due to higher wages for Arizona women; it’s because overall wages are ~~crappy~~… er… lower than the national level. Everyone makes less so the gap between men and women is not as great.
When you look at women’s wages overall, it masks what is happening with subgroups– particularly Latinas, who make far less than Asian, white and black women. Nationally, Latinas make 55 cents on the dollar.

If you want a Legislator who will fight for women’s rights and civil rights, vote for me in the August primary and the November general election.

If you are ready for reform in the Arizona Legislature, send a reformer to Phoenix. #PowersForThePeople

If you live in Legislative District 9, please sign my nominating petition here and give me a $5 Clean Elections Donation here. If you are eligible to vote in the US, you can make a seed money donation of up to $160 through PayPal. Here is the website link.