Thousands of women across the United States will be recognizing "Equal Pay Day" on April 12, 2011. The National Committee on Pay Equity reports that women are paid an average of only 75- 77 cents for every dollar earned by men in similar positions. This wage gap causes women to have to work longer hours to earn the same pay, and economists say this can translate into between a $700,000 and $2 million loss of income over a woman’s lifetime.
Despite the continued disparity in pay shown by census data, expert reports and economists’ studies, pay inequities are largely overlooked by legislators and Congress. For example, the Equal Rights Amendment drafted to help alleviate this problem, has never passed and been enacted as law. The Paycheck Fairness Act suffered a similar defeat.
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