![\"\"](\"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/92_michell.jpg\")
By Michell K. McIntyre, Outreach Director, Labor and Worker Rights<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\u201cToday, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it\u2019s an embarrassment. \u2026 It\u2019s time to do away with workplace policies that belong in a \u2018Mad Men\u2019 episode.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Today is the day we can start to put these words from President Obama during his State of the Union address into action. In a matter of hours, the U.S. Senate will vote on the\u00a0Paycheck Fairness Act<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 a bill that would deter wage discrimination. Today, 98 days into 2014, is Equal Pay Day. This day symbolizes the extra time needed for women to earn the same salary as their male counterparts in 2013. The Paycheck Fairness Act would deter wage discrimination by updating the nearly 50-year-old Equal Pay Act, in part by barring retaliation against workers who disclose their own wages to coworkers.<\/p>\n It’s ridiculous, but right now, no federal law broadly prohibits employers from penalizing and even firing employees just for talking about their salaries. The wage gap does not only affect women, it affects whole families. At a time when women increasingly are the breadwinners, 71 percent of mothers are part of the labor force, a pay gap unfairly targets children in households with single mothers or where both parents work. The pay gap, when calculated over the course of a year, means women receive on average $10,784 less than males performing similar work.<\/p>\n