April twenty-fourth is Equal Pay Day, devoted to raising attention to the ongoing pay gap between men and women. According to the 2005 Census Bureau, women on average earn seventy-seven cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. For many minority women, the wage gap is even worse; African American women make sixty-six cents and Latinas make fifty-five.
Here are more statistics to ponder while you’re on the job:
Over the course of her lifetime, the wage gap costs the average American full-time woman worker between $700,000 (high school graduates) to $2 million (professional degrees). (Source: National Committee on Pay Equity)
A woman in her twenties will increase her lifetime earnings by 10 percent if she delays the birth of her first child by a year. (Source: Amalia Miller, “The Effects of Motherhood Timing on Career Path,” University of Virginia, 2005)
The All England Club recently announced that this summer, Wimbledon will pay female and male winners the same amount. In 1968, the first year that Wimbledon paid players, Billie Jean King won 37.5 percent of the paycheck earned by male champion, Rod Laver. (Source: CNN)
Female doctors earn 58 percent of their male counterparts’ salaries. Even in predominantly female fields like nursing and teaching, women still earn less than men; female nurses earn 91 percent and female teachers earn 87 percent of what their male counterparts do. (Source: CNN: “Equal Pay for Women: Not Until 2050,” December, 20, 2004)
The Equal Pay Act, passed June 10, 1963, made it illegal to pay women lower rates for the same job strictly on the basis of their sex. Esther Peterson, the highest-ranking official in the Kennedy Administration, was the catalyst behind the Act. Later, she would be responsible for key consumer legislation, including putting nutritional labels and “sell by” dates on food products.
