[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5072]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         PAYCHECK FAIRNESS ACT

  (Mr. DeSAULNIER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. DeSAULNIER. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the 
Paycheck Fairness Act. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2013, 
women who worked full time earned, on average, only 78 cents for every 
dollar a man earned. The figures are even worse for women of color. 
African American women earned only approximately 64 cents and Latinas 
only 56 cents for each dollar earned by a White male. This is 
absolutely and unequivocally unacceptable in the United States of 
America. The average woman would have lost $420,000 throughout her 
working lifetime as a result of this pay gap.
  In my district, women make up 51 percent of the population, yet there 
is still a 76.4 percent wage gap in their annual median earnings. That 
is why I am a sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would work to 
close the gender wage gap by requiring employers to demonstrate that 
wage differentials are based on factors other than sex, and 
strengthening penalties for equal pay violations.
  Families increasingly rely on women's wages to make ends meet. Equal 
pay is not simply a women's issue; it is a family issue.

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