COLUMBUS, Ohio – April 15 is the deadline for Americans to file their income tax returns, but the day before is a red-letter day to activists seeking better wages for women.
Equal Pay Day, April 14, signifies how far into 2015 a woman has had to work to match the amount of money a man earned in 2014, according to groups advocating for passage of legislation, like the recently introduced Paycheck Fairness Act, which is aimed at closing the earning gap.
Women in the U.S. workforce earn, on average, 78 percent of what males are paid, said Beth Lonn, chief grants and operating officer with the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio.
Minority women are lucky to get that, she said.
“African American females, they’re earning more like 65 percent and Latino women are actually earning more like 55 percent so the overall rate is poor but when we break it down into minority status it gets even worse,” Lonn said.
When the Equal Pay Act of 1963 was signed into law, women were making only 59 cents for every dollar a man made, so the gap is narrowing but Lonn says it is not expected to close until 2058.
Congressional Democrats say, in Ohio, the gap is slightly wider – 23 cents – but opponents of the Paycheck Fairness Act, which supporters say would help close loopholes in the 1963 law, argue that the bill is unnecessary and may even be counter-productive.
“Women benefit most when the state’s power is limited, economies are allowed to flourish, cultures are permitted to prosper, and when individuals, their families, and communities are in charge,” says Sabrina Schaeffer, executive director of the Independent Women’s Forum.
She adds that the Obama administration, which has championed closing the gender wage gap, does not believe the claim that women earn 78 percent as much as men is accurate, but they continue to repeat it.
Both sides agree that the gap cannot be attributed merely to sexism or an outmoded double standard that placed the burden of earning a family’s income on the man.
Lonn says the wage gap can be traced to the beginning of a career, because female applicants tend to not negotiate pay like their male counterparts.
And, according to Schaeffer, “the statistical difference between women and men’s average earnings isn’t driven by widespread sexism, but largely from different choices men and women make throughout our lives.”