Tell Congress: Women Deserve Equal Pay!
In 2011, women earned, on average, 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. For women of color, the wage gap is even worse. In today’s economy, income inequality is high, well-paying jobs are scarce, and women and families are struggling to make ends meet.
The gender wage gap means women must work even harder to achieve economic security for themselves and for their families.
The Fair Pay Act (S. 168/H.R. 438) and the Paycheck Fairness Act (S.84/H.R. 377) would help address the gender wage gap by helping ensure that women receive full and fair compensation for their work. Contact your members of Congress today and urge them to co-sponsor and support these bills!
Last year, of the five best-paid executives at each of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index companies, 198 were women, or 8 percent of the total. Those high-achievers on average earned $5.3 million, 18 percent less than men.
According to a CBS News report ,there is an even bigger pay gap for women at the top of the corporate ladder.
Out of 2,500 of best-paid executives, only 198 were female, according to a Bloomberg report based on the S&P 500. Women earned $5.3 million on average — 18 percent less than men.
“The disparity is often because women negotiate less than men,” according to CBS News contributor and analyst Mellody Hobson. Hobson, who has been on committees that decide executive salaries, said when women do negotiate, there’s a sense that it will backfire. “Men, when they ask for more money, it’s seen as assertive,” she said. “When women do it, it’s seen as self-centered. And as a result of that, it affects our likability and our likability factors in to us being promoted along with competency.”
Women with the same degrees as men have lower starting salaries — $39,600 versus $51,300 among men, according to the American Association of University Women, a nonprofit advocacy group.
If women were paid more fairly, it could be a “boon for our country,” Hobson said. “We’ve been talking about this tepid growth we have in the U.S,” she said. “If women made the same as men, we would see three to four percentage points go up in growth. That is not insignificant. Just think back to the financial crisis — $800 billion was injected into our economy, and that represented 1.5 percent growth, so we’re talking big numbers. This is not just about helping a woman or her family. We all win in this scenario if women are paid fairly.”
