Paycheck Fairness Act: More Than Pocket Change Is at Stake

Huffington Post - After the crash, the downturn was dubbed a "mancession." As the meme continues to circulate, the Roosevelt Institute's New Deal 2.0 blog asked leading thinkers to help sort fact from fiction. Are men suffering more than women in a weak economy? Is Washington doing enough to address female unemployment? How do we ensure a jobs agenda that's fair and equitable? In the fifth part of an ongoing series, "The Myth of the Mancession? Women & the Jobs Crisis", Fatima Goss Graves explains why the recession makes Congressional action on equal pay urgent.

Last month, the Census Bureau released data that show that the gender wage gap is stagnant. In 2009, women who worked full-time, year-round made 77 cents for every dollar paid to their male counterparts. This 23 percent gap in wages represented no change from the prior year. The wage gap for women of color was even more staggering than for women overall. In 2009, Black and Hispanic women only made 62 and 53 cents, respectively, for every dollar made by white, non-Hispanic males. Women and their families cannot sustain a wage gap this deep in this economy. The nearly $11,000 per year in lost earnings is far more than pocket change -- these shortchanged wages could pay for key items such as rent, utilities, child care or health insurance premiums. Read more.