Realistic & Fair Wages

April 17, 2012

Last week, I talked to a cashier at a Ralph’s grocery store in Orange County, California. She told me she lives with and supports her 82-year-old mother and her disabled 56-year-old sister. She represents a growing group in the United States: a working woman who is head of household and also a...

MomsRising Together

Jenya Cassidy

Realistic & Fair Wages

April 17, 2012

Today is not just Tax Day. It is also Equal Pay Day - the day that symbolizes how far into 2012 women must work to earn what men already earned in 2011. That’s right. Women have to work for 16.5 months to earn what men make in 12 months. Even though it is 2012 and even though the Equal Pay Act was...

MomsRising Together

Ruth Martin

Realistic & Fair Wages

April 17, 2012

Today is Equal Pay Day, which marks the end of the catch-up game women in the United States involuntarily play every year. But unlike most games, there is no grand prize. Instead, women receive a brutal reminder that it takes from all of 2011 until April 2012 —more than 100 days since the beginning...

MomsRising Together

Janet Murguia

Realistic & Fair Wages

April 17, 2012

Tuesday, April 17 is Equal Pay Day, again. Equal Pay Day 2009 was impetus for my starting this blog. That day I dropped my son at school; at my request he was wearing red – one of the ways activists observe the day. As he was filing into class, I turned to a group of mothers and noted how proud I...

MomsRising Together

Liz O'Donnell

Realistic & Fair Wages

April 17, 2012

When you look at the budget of a low-income, single woman with children, one of the first things you’ll notice is that pretty much every dollar is reserved for the most basic necessities. In Washington, DC, half of her income might go toward childcare, another third could be reserved for rent, and...

MomsRising Together

Nicky Goren

Realistic & Fair Wages

April 17, 2012

For hundreds of millions of working women across America, paycheck fairness is about the fact that, on average, women earn about seventy cents for every dollar a man makes. For the more than 5 million women in the restaurant industry, however, paycheck fairness is about that, and much more. In many...

MomsRising Together

Jayaraman Saru

Realistic & Fair Wages

April 17, 2012

By the age of 30 in 2012, I have already built a 15 year career in the restaurant industry. Hospitality runs in my family, so working with people, food and beverage has always been a passion of mine. Additionally, both of my parents are Marines; hard work, discipline, and pride for one's country...

MomsRising Together

Nikki Lewis

Realistic & Fair Wages

April 17, 2012

I’m making a film about the pay gap that I hope will ignite some serious change in the way America does business. Why I’m making this film. I started on this project last year after several years of working as a copywriter. Copywriting was one of those choices I’d stumbled on and stayed with out of...

MomsRising Together

Kate Bryant

Realistic & Fair Wages Family Economic Security

April 17, 2012

Equal Pay Day and Tax Day both fall on April 17 this year due to a simple calendar coincidence . But the connection between the two and the financial impact for women and especially mothers is no coincidence. April 17, 2012 is the day that symbolizes how far into 2012 a woman has to work to match...

MomsRising Together

Kristin Maschka

Realistic & Fair Wages

April 17, 2012

Somehow that great umpire in the sky keeps missing the call on equal pay for women. Men run 100 yards to score a touchdown for seven points while women run those same 100 yards but it’s only worth five points? Video replay anyone? Isn’t this America where we value fair play? A woman can be fired...

MomsRising Together