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Members of Congress Endorse Pay Equity
at Capital Hill Equal Pay Day Rally
Women Work, Pay Them Fairly

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY),
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will
speak in support of women’s wage equity at an Equal Pay Day rally on Capitol Hill this afternoon.

The rally—entitled Women Work! Pay Them Fairly—is being organized by Women Work! The
National Network for Women’s Employment.

"Today we call on Congress to take action to close the wage gap and protect the rights of America’s women workers,” said Jill Miller, Women Work! President & CEO. “To help women attain wage equity we need both stronger laws against wage discrimination and increased opportunities in America’s job training system for women to prepare for jobs that pay women comparable wages.”

The rally will be attended by members of Women Work!’s nationwide network of job training and education programs for women. Women Work! member organizations provide holistic service to help women move from low-wage, female dominated service industry jobs to jobs that offer familysupporting wages, job stability and prospects for advancement.

"Millions of female-dominated jobs – social workers, teachers, child-care workers, nurses, and many more – are equivalent to jobs traditionally held by men, but pay dramatically less,” said Senator Harkin. “This is why I reintroduced the Fair Pay Act this year. My bill requires each individual employer to provide equal pay for similar jobs. If we want families to have the resources they need, we have to pay women fairly.”

"Even though the Equal Pay Act was enacted more than 40 years ago, women still only make 76% of what men make. Pay equity is more than a women's issue. It is a financial issue for families and a matter of values - ensuring hard work is honored and rewarded in America,” said Congresswoman DeLauro. “That is why I am pleased that this year we mark Equal Pay Day with the first-ever Congressional hearing focused on the effects of the pay gap and a legislative remedy, the Paycheck Fairness Act. The marketplace alone will not correct this injustice - we need a legislative solution.”

"The wage gap has a huge impact on the women who come through Indiana programs, many of
whom are struggling to get by working in low-paying jobs without benefits,” said Kathy Clayton,
Director of Women Work! member program the Labor Institute For Training, Inc. in Indiana. "When you’re already scrambling every month to make ends meet, losing almost a quarter for every dollar a man is paid is really devastating to a family budget.”

Full-time women workers are paid only 77 cents for every dollar full-time men workers are paid,
according to the most recent data from the U.S Census Bureau. Over a lifetime this wage gap adds up to astonishing financial losses for women—ranging between $700,000 and $2 million depending on the level of professional training the woman has completed. Equal Pay Day is observed to indicate how far into each year a woman must work to be paid as much as a man was paid in the previous year. In 2007, April 24th symbolizes the day when women's wages catch up to men's wages from 2006.

Women Work! The National Network for Women’s Employment is a nonprofit, nonpartisan
organization that advances economic justice and equality for women through education, advocacy and organizing. Since 1978, the Network has assisted more than 10 million women to successfully enter, re-enter and advance in the workforce. Through supporting, advocating and increasing women’s economic self-sufficiency, Women Work! members strengthen families and communities. For more information, visit www.womenwork.org or call (202) 467-6346.

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