Today marks Equal Pay Day. A day dedicated to raising awareness of the persistent pay gap between men and women in the U.S.
Despite the progress made in recent years, women working full-time year round are still paid 84 cents for every dollar paid to men with even wider disparities for Black women and Latinas. For Black women, it’s about 65 cents, and for Latino women it’s 60 cents. This despite the fact that more women now graduate from college than men.
President Biden released a statement highlighting the injustices of the pay gap and the systematic issues that contribute to it. His administration says they’ve been focused on dismantling barriers that women face in the workplace and providing support for families such as direct stimulus relief and childcare funding.
However, more work needs to be done. The president is urging Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act to help close the gender pay gap by expanding protections for employees and empowering the Labor Department to better investigate wage discrimination.
Click play to listen to the report from AURN White House Correspondent Ebony McMorris. For more news, follow @E_N_McMorris & @aurnonline.
