Equal Pay Day

It is very important to study history. It is where we come from and lines out what will become of us. As we look at our past and see the endless cycles repeating themselves, we have to ask ourselves how can we do better? Are we doomed to repeat the same errors throughout time?

March marks Women’s history month. And on March 14 I learned that it is something called “Equal Pay Day”. For those of you who do not what this stands for, the National Committee on Pay Equity describes it as:

“This date symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.”

This day was started in 1996 to obviously illustrate the gap between men’s and women’s wages. Women work on average 15 months to earn what a man makes in 12 ($0.77 to 0.84 for women compared to $1 for men). For a woman of color, it is even worse. This can mean over $400,000 over a lifetime.

Congratulations to the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who recently made a commitment of equal pay and complete transparency in its hiring practices for city jobs.

It is 2023 and the time for rhetoric to garner votes is over. No one feels that this is right, so why is it still in place? We should not need a law to make this happen. This is a policy that should have been on the books years ago. Call your local congress person or Senator. Let’s get this done.