The Paycheck Fairness Act1 has been proposed by Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and rejected by congress multiple times. Each time, Rep. DeLauro has refused to back down, and for that she deserves our support.

This bill is still a vital step toward ensuring women are paid the same as their male counterparts.

"Black women, Latinas, and other women continue to be undervalued and underpaid, even as they risk their lives on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis to keep the country going," says Emily Martin, vice president for education & workplace justice at the National Women's Law Center2. "If we don't close the gender wage gap, a woman starting her career today stands to lose more than $400,000 over a 40-year career. Latinas will typically lose over $1 million and Black women and Native American women close to that."

The World Economic Forum predicts that the pandemic's impact on women has only widened the gender gap that already existed3. Prior to the pandemic, WEF predicted that it would take 100 years for gender equality to be reached globally. Now, that prediction has increased to 135.6 years. When looking at the U.S. specifically, WEF predicts it could take 61.5 years before economic parity is reached.

One reason why this gap has widened during the pandemic is because of the disproportionate job loss women have experienced over the past year, as well as the decrease in women's labor force participation rate as many working mothers have been forced out of work by child-care demands4. Since February 2020, women have lost more than 4.6 million net jobs, with many of these jobs being in service-sector industries that were impacted heavily by the pandemic, reports NWLC5. By comparison, men have lost nearly 3.8 million net jobs over the same time period.

Building upon the Equal Pay Act6, which gives workers the ability to fight for wage discrimination, the Paycheck Fairness Act would allow salary information to be shared amongst coworkers, and will require employees to explain pay differences between men and women based on job performance versus gender7.

Let's thank and support Representative DeLauro for her fight to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act and convince those who oppose it that our support will outnumber them!

More on this issue:

1. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, 117th Congress (28 January 2021), "H.R.7 - Paycheck Fairness Act."
2. National Women's Law Center (28 January 2021), "The Paycheck Fairness Act and Raise the Wage Act Will Help Women Build Economic Security."
3. Abigail Ng, CNBC (1 April 2021), "Covid widened the gender gap — it will now take 135 years to close that divide, WEF says."
4. Courtney Connley, CNBC (5 March 2021), "Unemployment rate understates what's going on, expert says, as millions of women remain out of workforce."
5. Claire Ewing-Nelson, Jasmine Tucker, National Women's Law Center (April 2021), "Only About One Third of the 916,000 Jobs Gained Last Month Went to Women."
6. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration & Management, "Equal Pay for Equal Work."
7. Kathy Gurchiek, SHRM (15 February 2019), "Paycheck Fairness Act Would Hold Employers Accountable for Pay Gaps."