[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5362-5363]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                             EQUAL PAY DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, just a few minutes ago I was here in jest and 
in honoring the Duke team. I want to speak on a very serious subject at 
this point in time.
  It is just days after the end of Women's History Month and just weeks 
before millions of Americans will collectively honor their mothers on 
Mother's Day. Both events are borne out of the great respect and 
admiration we have for the women who have so strengthened our Nation, 
our society, and our families. Yet even today, Mr. Speaker, we must 
face up to this reality: American women earned only 72 cents for every 
dollar that men earned in 1999 for equal and comparable work, according 
to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And that, Mr. 
Speaker, is a drop of 1 cent from 1998. Put another way, that 72-cent 
figure means that today, Tuesday, April 3, is the day on which women's 
wages catch up to men's wages from the previous week. It takes women 7 
working days to earn what men earn in 5.
  This gender wage gap exists even when men and women have the same 
occupation, race, and experience; are employed in the same industry, in 
the same region, and are working for firms of equal size. But here, Mr. 
Speaker, is what it means in real terms. Each week it means that women, 
on average, have $28 less to spend on groceries, housing, child care, 
and other expenses for every $100 of work they do. Each month it means 
that women, on average, work 1 week for free. And over the course of a 
lifetime, it means that the average 25-year-old woman will lose more 
than $.5 million due to the wage gap. Let me repeat that: During their 
working lives, women will, on average, lose $.5 million because of the 
unfair wage gap.
  The wage gap is even larger for women of color. African American 
women are paid only 65 cents for every dollar earned by a man, and 
Hispanic women make only 52 cents for every dollar earned by a man.
  Yes, our Nation has made great strides in gender equality. In 1979, 
for example, women earned only 63 cents for every dollar men earned. 
But the wage disparity that exists in our society continues, and it is 
simply unacceptable. It is wrong.
  I speak not only as a legislator, but as the father of three 
daughters and the grandfather of two granddaughters. Bella Abzug, a 
leader in the fight for women's equality and a former Member of this 
House, once remarked, and I quote, ``The test for whether or not you 
can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes.'' We 
must apply that same test with equal vigor on the issue of fair pay. If 
you can do your job, there must be no question that you will receive 
fair pay for your labor.
  This issue, after all, is not strictly a woman's issue. It is an 
issue that strikes at the heart of family finances and fairness. 
Unequal pay robs entire families of economic security. More women than 
ever are in the work force today, and their wages are essential in 
supporting their families. Sixty-four

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percent of working women provide half or more of their family's income, 
according to a 1997 study by the AFL-CIO. And the wage gap costs the 
average American family approximately $4,000 each year.
  Mr. Speaker, we talked about giving their money back to them, the 
taxpayers. That is an appropriate subject for us to discuss. But it is 
also clear that paying equal wages to our women workers would be a 
better benefit for them. So despite the fact that equal pay has been 
the law since the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Civil 
Rights Act of 1964, we still have a long way to go.
  That is why I have cosponsored, Mr. Speaker, and urge my colleagues 
to support, H.R. 781, the bipartisan Paycheck Fairness Act. This 
legislation would toughen the Equal Pay Act, and I urge my colleagues 
to support it.

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