50 Years Down, 57 More to go?!

On June 10, 1963 President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law and this past Monday was the 50^th anniversary of the bill’s passage. When the bill was signed by President Kennedy women earned 59 cents on every dollar that a man earned. But instead of celebrating this landmark legislation, it was a day that reminded us of how far we still have to go.

Maine women earn 78 cents to every dollar that men in Maine earn.[i] Has it really taken 50 years for us to gain 19 cents on the wage gap?! That is less than a one cent gain per year, 38/100 of a cent to be exact. If this is the rate at which we continue to close the gap, it will take another 57 years for us to achieve equal pay. This means that my three-year-old daughter’s daughter will be the first woman in our family to reach the equal pay goal.

30.5% of Maine families are headed by a woman and of these families 58.9% have children under 5.[ii] Women who are fully employed in Maine lose approximately $1,760,102,715 per year as a group. If the wage gap was closed ($9,345 on average per women, per year) women in Maine would be able to afford 71 more weeks (1.4 year) of food, 7 more months of mortgage and utilities, and 13 more months of rent.[iii] Regardless of their educational background, women are affected by the wage gap; there is not a group of women that can escape this inequality.

We do not have to wait 57 years to reach our goal of pay equality! The Paycheck Fairness Act is under consideration in the U.S. Congress. This bill would update the 50 year-old Equal Pay Act by closing loopholes through a requirement that employers have a legitimate business reason for paying a woman less. Both the National Women’s Law Center and the AAUW have more information on the Paycheck Fairness Act.

– Jenna Burt-Weeks