[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4824]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             EQUAL PAY DAY

  (Mr. PETERS of California asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. PETERS of California. Mr. Speaker, today is Equal Pay Day, and 
June will mark the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy signing the 
Equal Pay Act. Despite these markers of recognition and achievement, 
discrimination through the form of a staggering wage gap still exists.
  In San Diego, a woman is paid 84 cents for every dollar a man is paid 
for the same job with the same experience. That means, together, San 
Diego women earn nearly $3.2 billion less each year than their male 
counterparts for performing the same work. For a woman working in San 
Diego, the wage gap represents 60 weeks of food, 4 weeks of mortgage 
and utility payments, 7 months of rent, or 2,035 gallons of gasoline.
  To me, it's remarkable that this is still an issue, so in my first 
month in Congress I cosponsored Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro's Paycheck 
Fairness Act. It addresses the continuing discrepancy in pay and 
strengthens the Equal Pay Act by providing for greater enforcement of 
and remedies to gender discrimination in the payment of wages.
  For my daughter and her daughters, for the women of San Diego, and 
for women across the Nation, I encourage every Member in this body to 
stand up for women and help pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.

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