[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 46 (Tuesday, April 9, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E393-E394]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        SUPPORT OF EQUAL PAY DAY

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 9, 2013

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, today is Equal Pay Day, the day in 
April recognized annually to signify the point into a year that a woman 
must work to earn what a man made the previous year.
  This means that on average, a woman needed to work from January 1, 
2012 until April 9, 2013 to earn the same salary that a comparable man 
earned in 2012 alone.
  More than 50 years after Congress made it illegal for employers to 
discriminate on the basis of sex, it is shameful that hard working 
American women are paid so much less than their male counterparts for 
the same work.
  Today, women make up nearly half the workforce, but their paychecks 
still lag far behind men's. Today the typical American woman who works 
full time, year round is paid only 77 cents for every dollar paid to 
her male counterpart.
  The wage gap occurs at all education levels, after work experience is 
taken into account, and it gets worse as women's careers progress.
  Women are paid less than men in nearly every occupation. One study 
examining wage gaps within occupations found that out of 265 major 
occupations, men's median salary exceeded women's in all but a few 
lower paid service sector jobs.
  The six jobs with the largest gender gap in pay and at least 10,000 
men and 10,000 women were in the Wall Street-heavy financial sector: 
insurance agents, managers, clerks, securities sales agents, personal 
advisers, and other specialists.
  Advanced-degree professions proved no better predictors of equality. 
Female doctors made 63 cents for every $1 earned by male physicians and 
surgeons. Female chief executives earned 74 cents for every $1 made by 
male counterparts.
  Women only constitute 3.7 percent of Fortune 500 chief executives and 
18.3 percent of corporate-board directors.
  The wage gap impacts women as soon as they enter the labor force, 
expands over time, and leaves older women with a gap in retirement 
income.
  The wage gap is smaller for younger women than older women, but it 
begins right when women enter the labor force. The typical 15-24 year 
old woman working full time, year round, earns 92.2 percent of what her 
male counterpart is paid.
  Among older women, the gap is even larger. The typical 45-64 year old 
woman working full time, year round is paid just 72.8 percent of what 
her male counterpart is paid. For women still working at age 65 and 
older the figure is 72.1 percent.
  A typical woman who worked full time, year round would lose$443,360 
over the course of a 40-year working life due to the wage gap. This 
woman would have to work almost twelve years longer to make up this 
gap. A typical woman working full time, year round who starts, but who 
does not finish high school would lose $372,400 over a 40-year period, 
an enormous amount of money for women who are typically paid $21,113 a 
year. This woman would have to work over seventeen years longer to make 
up this gap.
  As a result of lower lifetime earnings and different work patterns, 
the average Social Security benefit for women 65 and older was about 
$12,700 per year, compared to $16,700 for men of the same age in 2011.
  In 2010, women 50 and older received only 56 cents for every dollar 
received by men in income from pensions and annuities. One study found 
that the typical woman worker near retirement with a defined 
contribution plan or individual retirement account had accumulated 
$34,000 in savings, while her male counterpart held $70,00--more than 
twice as much. Reasons for the Wage Gap


                        REASONS FOR THE WAGE GAP

  Several important factors contribute to the wage gap. Among them are 
discrimination, racial disparities, occupational segregation, which 
involve structural factors which operate to concentrate women in low-
wage jobs and limit their access to higher paying jobs in 
nontraditional occupations. Also playing a part is the devaluation of 
women's work and women's greater responsibility for care giving.
  A study by labor economists Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn found 
that even controlling for the combined effects of occupation, industry, 
work experience, union status, race and educational attainment, 41% of 
the wage gap remains unexplained. This indicates that discrimination 
plays a sizable role in the gender wage gap.
  Some of this discrimination seems to be directed against mothers. A 
study by sociologists Shelley Correll, Stephan Benard, and Ian Paik 
found that, when comparing equally qualified women job candidates, 
women who were mothers were recommended for significantly lower 
starting salaries, perceived as less competent, and less likely to be 
recommended for hire than non-mothers.
  The effects for fathers in the study were the opposite: fathers were 
actually recommended for significantly higher pay and were perceived as 
more committed to their jobs than non-fathers.
  But it is not only mothers who are discriminated against in the 
workplace. Study after study shows that when companies are reviewing 
resumes, they are more likely to hire men, and more likely to offer 
those men a higher salary. These studies are done by submitting 
identical resumes, but changing the name of the applicant. This means 
that even with the exact same resume and qualifications, Roberta is 
offered a lower salary than Robert. Joanna is offered a lower salary 
than Joe. Women are offered a lower salary than men just because they 
are women.


            The Wage Gap is Even Greater for Women of Color

       Women of color experience a far greater wage gap than their 
     white, non-Hispanic counterparts.
       The typical African-American woman who works full time, 
     year round makes only 64 cents, and the typical Hispanic 
     woman who works full time, year round only 55 cents, for 
     every dollar paid to their white, non-Hispanic male 
     counterparts. For the typical white, non-Hispanic woman, this 
     figure is 77 cents.
       The wage gap for African-American and Hispanic women 
     working full time, year round persists when the effect of 
     race is examined alone. The typical African-American woman 
     working full-time year round is paid

[[Page E394]]

     roughly 80 cents for every dollar paid to her white, non-
     Hispanic female counterpart. The gap is larger for the 
     typical Hispanic woman working full time, year round, who is 
     paid just 70 cents for every dollar paid to her white, non-
     Hispanic female counterpart.
       The wage gap for African-American and Hispanic women 
     working full time, year round also persists when the effect 
     of sex is considered alone. The typical African-American 
     woman working full-time year round is paid roughly 85 cents 
     for every dollar paid to her African-American male 
     counterpart. The typical Hispanic woman working full time, 
     year round is paid 91 cents for every dollar paid to her 
     Hispanic male counterpart.
       In my home state of Texas, the statistics are even worse 
     for women of color. African American women in Texas make 59.6 
     cents compared to white non-Hispanic men, and Hispanic women 
     make 45.2 cents for every dollar earned by a white, non-
     Hispanic man.


 Occupational Segregation Leads to Unequal Pay Persistent Occupational 
                              Segregation

       Almost two-thirds of workers earning the lowest wages--
     those who make the federal minimum wage or less--are women. 
     The federal minimum wage is just $7.25 per hour. The federal 
     minimum cash wage for tipped employees is $2.13 per hour, 
     less than one-third of the current federal minimum wage and 
     unchanged in more than 20 years. Women make up almost two-
     thirds (65 percent) of workers in tipped occupations.
       Even in occupations that pay slightly above the federal 
     minimum wage, women predominate. Women are the majority of 
     workers in each of the ten largest occupations that typically 
     pay less than $10.10 per hour, and two-thirds or more of the 
     workers in seven of these occupations.
       Studies have shown that occupational segregation leads to 
     lower wages for women. In fact, wages in occupations that are 
     made up predominantly of women--``pink collar'' occupations 
     such as child care workers, family caregivers or servers pay 
     low wages--precisely because women are the majority of 
     workers in the occupation. One study that used the share of 
     women in an occupation to predict wages in that job a decade 
     later found that ``women's occupations''--those that were 
     two-thirds or more female--had wages that were 6 percent to 
     10 percent lower a decade later than ``mixed occupations.''


                Unequal Pay Hurts Families and Children

       Whenever a woman receives unequal pay for equal work, their 
     families suffer.
       Lower earnings have a serious impact on the economic 
     security of the over 7.5 million families headed by working 
     single mothers.
       Working single mothers with children struggle to make ends 
     meet. In 2011, over a quarter, almost 2.2 million, of all 
     such families were poor. Almost an additional 2.5 million 
     working single mother families were on the edge of poverty, 
     falling between 100 and 200 percent of the Federal Poverty 
     Level, meaning that 62% of working single mother families 
     subsisted under 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. In 
     2011, the Federal Poverty Level for a single mother with two 
     children was just $18,123.
       Most two-parent families depend on women's wages, and so 
     also suffer when women receive unfair pay.
       Nearly 1.6 million married couples with children relied 
     exclusively on women's earnings at some point in 2011, 
     representing 6.6 percent of all married couples with 
     children.
       In 2011, more than 13.9 million married couples with 
     children relied on both parents' earnings, representing 58.7 
     percent of all married couples with children.
       Fair pay impacts married women with no children who are 
     more likely to be solely supporting their family than married 
     women with children.
       Nearly 4.1 million married couples with no children relied 
     exclusively on women's earnings at some point in 2011, 
     representing 11.5 percent of all married couples with no 
     children.
       In 2011, almost 13.9 million married couples with no 
     children relied on both partners' earnings, representing 39.4 
     percent of all married couples with no children.


                        Lilly Ledbetter's Story

       While looking at these shocking statistics, I wanted to 
     remind you all of the story of a woman who received unequal 
     pay for equal work: Lilly Ledbetter. She has become a 
     household name for her courage to fight for an equal 
     paycheck. Thanks to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 
     women in Ms. Ledbetter's situation can now seek remedies in 
     federal court more easily. These statistics show that women 
     all around the country experience the kind of discrimination 
     that Lilly Ledbetter faced.
       Lilly Ledbetter was born in a house with no running water 
     or electricity in the small town of Possum Trot, Alabama.
       She worked hard, and became a supervisor at Goodyear Tire 
     and Rubber's plant in Gadsden, Alabama, from 1979 until her 
     retirement in 1998.
       For most of those years, she worked as an area manager, a 
     position largely occupied by men. Initially, Ledbetter's 
     salary was in line with the salaries of men performing 
     substantially similar work. Over time, however, her pay 
     slipped in comparison to the pay of male area managers with 
     equal or less seniority.
       By the end of 1997, Ledbetter was the only woman working as 
     an area manager and the pay discrepancy between Ledbetter and 
     her 15 male counterparts was stark: Ledbetter was paid $3,727 
     per month; the lowest paid male area manager received $4,286 
     per month, the highest paid, $5,236.
       In short, despite her outstanding performance, every month 
     Lilly Ledbetter took home a smaller paycheck than men doing 
     the same job. She may have never found out about this 
     discrimination had a co-worker not slipped her an anonymous 
     note telling her she was being paid hundreds of dollars less 
     per month.
       At first, the Supreme Court said that Lilly Ledbetter 
     couldn't even sue her employer since the first time they 
     began paying her unequally was 19 years ago, leaving Lilly 
     Ledbetter with no remedy for the 19 years of unequal, 
     discriminatory paychecks she received. Fortunately, Congress 
     stepped up and passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which 
     allows women to bring a lawsuit within a reasonable amount of 
     time uncovering the discrimination.
       Our goal here in Congress needs to be to eliminate unequal 
     pay at its root. Every day, women like Lilly Ledbetter are 
     less able to pay their bills, save for retirement, and enjoy 
     the fruits of their labor because they are paid less than 
     their male counterparts.


                               Conclusion

       We need to act to close this wage gap. More than 50 years 
     after Congress made it illegal for employers to discriminate 
     on the basis of sex, it is shameful that hard working 
     American women are paid 77 cents for every dollar earned by a 
     man. 77 cents for working the same job, the same number of 
     hours.
       Equal Pay Day reminds us how much further we need to go to 
     achieve equality in the workplace. We need to come together 
     to work to put an end to unequal pay for equal work.

                          ____________________