Paycheck Fairness Act

Floor Speech

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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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