[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4826]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             EQUAL PAY DAY

  (Mr. BERA of California asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BERA of California. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to celebrate Equal 
Pay Day as we mark the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act.
  In the last 50 years, women have gone into space and off to war. 
They've led Fortune 500 companies and served on the Supreme Court. 
They've been elected Speaker of the House and run for President; yet 
women still earn only 77 cents for every dollar a man earns.
  In the Sacramento area, women lose approximately $2.2 billion each 
year because of this pay gap. Now, that's unacceptable and as a father 
it's personal. I want my daughter to grow up in a country where her 
gender is not a barrier to her success.
  And the wage gap doesn't just hurt women; it hurts families, 
businesses, and communities. Women are now nearly half of our 
workforce, and oftentimes it's up to women to put food on the table and 
provide for their families. That's why I'm a proud cosponsor of the 
Paycheck Fairness Act, one of the very first bills I chose to 
cosponsor.
  It's time for us to finish what President Kennedy started 50 years 
ago and what women have been working to achieve for more than a century 
and make equal pay a reality for millions of Americans.

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