Washington, DC - Congressman John D. Dingell made the following statement today recognizing Equal Pay Day, the day in which the wages of American women catch up to what men earned in 2009.  According to statistics released in 2009 by the Census Bureau, women in the United States still earn about 77 cents to the male dollar.

“In 1963, when the Equal Pay Act was signed, women who worked full-time, year-round made 59 cents on average for every dollar earned by men.  In 2009, women earned 77 cents for every dollar earned by men,” Dingell said.  “This means that the wage gap has narrowed by less than half a cent per year.  Progress is too slow.”

“We know that women work equally as hard as men, so why the discrepancy in pay? How do we continue to justify this gender gap? I’d love to believe that the invisible hand of the free market will work it out, but try telling that to the families counting on the woman of the house as the sole wage earner,” Dingell said. “Right now, 41 percent of women are their families’ sole source of income.  This is not a women’s issue, this is a family issue.”

“As a husband, father of daughters and grandfather of granddaughters, it is time to do something about the pay gap.   The Paycheck Fairness Act is a key initiative in closing the pay gap between men and women.  This bill strengthens the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and closes the loopholes that have allowed employers to avoid responsibility for discriminatory pay.  The bill would require that employers seeking to justify unequal pay must show that the disparity is not sex-based, but job-related; and would prohibit employers from retaliating against employees who share salary information with their co-workers.  The House passed the bill by a vote of 256-163 on January 9, 2009, but the Senate has yet to take up the bill.”