Equal Pay Day provides rallying point for women

From rallies to “unhappy hours,” women across the country will spend Tuesday marking a day of observance many wish didn’t exist.

Equal Pay Day symbolizes the date when working women’s wages catch up to what men were paid the previous year. Women working full time in the USA were typically paid 80% of what men were paid in 2015, and the pay gap was worse for women of color, according to a recent study.

Given the energy behind recent women’s marches, pay equity advocates expect strong participation in events and lobbying behind federal legislation that would strengthen the Equal Pay Act, a 1963 law prohibiting wage disparity based on sex.

The Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D- Conn., will reintroduce Tuesday for the 11th time, aims to strengthen an aggrieved worker’s position in court, prohibit retaliation against workers and improve federal enforcement of anti- discrimination laws.

“In the wake of the Women’s March and the incredible energy we are seeing around political activism by women in particular, we expect this Equal Pay Day to be a big day,” said Emily Martin with the National Women’s Law Center.

Advocates expect events in all 50 states, including rallies at statehouses, lobbying visits and even bake sales, in which men are charged $ 1 for baked goods and women are charged 80 cents. Three hundred businesses in 25 cities will participate in the # 20 percent counts campaign that offers 20% discounts or special offers to women and in some cases men.

“What’s fascinating is the kind of activity we’re seeing around Equal Pay Day this year— not just the creativity of it but frankly the enormity of it,” said Lisa Maatz with the American Association of University Women.

Part of the reason for the pay gap may be a concentration of women in lower paying jobs or women working fewer hours, but experts point to discrimination and bias as contributing factors.

President Trump’s daughter Ivanka said she’s “very passionate” about wage equality and pledged during the presidential campaign that her father would fight for “equal pay for equal work.” Trump’s own statements have been less clear. He has said he supports pay based on performance, but he expressed concerns in 2015 about equal pay legislation if “everybody ends up making the same pay,” likening such a result to “a socialist society.”

Pay equity advocates are concerned about legislative and executive efforts to roll back equal pay enforcement, Martin said.

Trump revoked President Obama’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Order of 2014, designed to ensure the federal government considers a contractor’s record of labor and employment violations, including pay discrimination.

Equal pay legislation has been introduced in 40 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico this year.