March 29, 2024

Hoyer Marks Equal Pay Day

Equal Pay Day

Each year on April 10, the United States marks the day it takes a woman, on average, to earn the amount as a man who has been doing the same work if both had started on the first day of January. Congressman Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md., 5th) released a statement to acknowledge Equal Pay Day.

Women earn just 80 cents for every dollar a man earns at the same job.

This “is not only insultingly unfair but harmful to millions of families across our economy that depend on women’s incomes to make ends meet,” Congressman Hoyer said in the statement. “In addition, it is shameful that the wage gap among minority women is even worse. Democrats will continue to fight for equal pay for equal work …”

In 2009, Congressman Hoyer brought the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to the House floor as majority leader.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act overturned the Supreme Court’s decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Inc.,  which severely restricted the time period for filing complaints of employment discrimination concerning compensation. The act states the EEOC’s longstanding position that each paycheck that contains discriminatory compensation is a separate violation regardless of when the discrimination began. The Ledbetter Act recognizes the “reality of wage discrimination” and restores “bedrock principles of American law.” Particularly important for the victims of discrimination, the act contains an explicit retroactivity provision.

When Congressman Hoyer brought the law to the House, “I did so as a first step, not a last one. It is imperative that we now build on that progress by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would make it more difficult for women to be discriminated against on their paychecks by earning less when performing the same work as men. It’s time to bring this bill to the floor, and I urge Speaker [Paul] Ryan and Leader [Kevin] McCarthy to do so without delay.”

Follow Congressman Hoyer on Facebook and Twitter.

For more information about House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer, visit his Leader member page.

Leave A Comment