My 16-month-old daughter just started using the potty chair (I know, right!?!?).  Luckily my friends, family, and co-workers are charitable people who indulge my proud parent banter and even say things like “Your daughter will be running the country before you know it!”

While I pondered what the country would look like with daughter running it – after she's fully potty trained, of course – I learned this startling fact: Even though President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963, the pay gap has been narrowing by less than half a percent a year. That means at this rate the pay gap won’t close until 2057 and my now 16-month old daughter will be 48 years old.

I’m not willing to wait that long and I bet you aren’t either.  So I’m sending my U.S. Senators a message: Pass the Paycheck Fairness Act as soon as you get back to Washington.

You can send a message now too: http://action.momsrising.org/letter/10_9_10_PFA/

*AND* don't forget to vote by this coming Tuesday, November 2nd because almost 50 years is too long to wait for fair pay.

Why do we need the Paycheck Fairness Act?

In this tough economy more and more families are relying on the paychecks of women and mothers. But women--and particularly mothers--aren't getting paid fairly for the work they do, and that can have a long-term negative impact on American families.  In fact, recent news reports have shown:

• Data recently released by the U.S. Census found that women who worked full-time, year round on average still made 23 cents less for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. (This marks no change from 2008’s wage gap and amounts to nearly $11,000 per year in lost earnings).  And, the wage gap for women of color in 2009 was even more staggering than for women overall. When Black and Hispanic women work full-time, year round, they only make 62 and 53 cents, respectively, for every dollar their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts earn. [1]

• According to a report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) mothers who are working in management positions earned 79 cents for every dollar earned by fathers who are managers, unchanged from 2000.  Further, in 12 out of the 13 major industries, fathers were more likely than mothers to be managers. [2]

• "[T]he pay gap could easily create a retirement savings shortfall of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Consider this example of a female and male manager, both 50 years old and looking to retire at 65.  She makes $81,000, he makes $100,000 in 2010, and each gets a standard 2% annual raise.  Not only will he end up earning more than $350,000 than she did over those 15 years, he’ll also end up saving 23% more for retirement– even though both contributed 10% of their income to their retirement funds each year and got a 5% average annual rate of return." As reported by The Wall Street Journal. [3]

• Bloomberg News reported: "Women managers in finance, a group that includes bank tellers as well as executives, earned 63.9 cents for every dollar of income men earned in 2000, based on median salaries, according to Government Accountability Office statistics analyzed by Bloomberg. In 2007, the last year for which data are available, the figure was 58.8 cents. The 41-cent gap was the biggest in any of 13 industries surveyed by the GAO, and only two others had a widening disparity." [4]

Sadly, the current unequal pay that women and mothers receive is a contributing factor to why now a full 1 in 7 people in the U.S. live in poverty, [5] as well as to the fact that nearly 1 in 4 kids in our nation are experiencing food scarcity due to family economic limitations. [6]

How would the Paycheck Fairness Act help?

If passed, the Paycheck Fairness Act will strengthen the 1963 Equal Pay Act because it will:

• Deter wage discrimination by strengthening penalties for equal pay violations and by prohibiting retaliation against workers who ask about employers' wage practices or disclose their own wages;
• Empower women to negotiate for equal pay;
• Strengthen federal outreach, education and enforcement efforts;
• Create stronger incentives for employers to follow the law.

With Senator Reid recently filing for cloture on this bill (which is D.C.-speak for preparing a bill for a vote), and the House having already passed the bill, we have – right now! – an opportunity to take a giant leap forward for equal pay for equal work by increasing our pressure for the U.S. Senate to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Tell your U.S. Senators:  We don’t have 50 years to wait for the pay gap to close – we need the Paycheck Fairness Act now. http://action.momsrising.org/letter/10_9_10_PFA/

And then be sure to vote by this coming Tuesday, November 2 and show our elected officials that we will hold them accountable.

Even if you've taken action before, we need you to do it again and again. November is just around the corner, and we need to increase the pressure.

Let's make sure that women have fair pay before my 16-month-old daughter is potty training her own daughter.

Together we have the power to make this happen!

P.S.  Have you ever experienced wage or hiring discrimination?  We're pulling together stories of MomsRising members across the nation to share with U.S. Senators.  Share your story here (and feel free to share anonymously):  http://www.momsrising.org/submit/mrstory/pay-discrimination

[1] http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2009/index.html and  http://www.nwlc.org/our-blog/state-wage-gap-data-show-little-or-no-improvement-2008

[2] http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-892R

[3] http://blogs.wsj.com/juggle/2010/10/01/for-women-pay-gap-means-retirement-shortfall/

[4] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-06/wall-street-says-women-worth-less-as-pay-disparity-widens-in-finance-ranks.html

[5] http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/income_wealth/cb10-144.html

[6] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/16/AR2009111601598.html