“Today is Equal Pay Day 2024, the day that is a painful reminder of how badly women and moms in our country continue to be underpaid and undervalued. Women in the United States are paid a paltry 78 cents for every dollar paid to men, when looking at all working people – those who work full- and part-time, and year-round as well as part-year, according to 2022 U.S. Census data. Women who work full-time, year-round are paid just 84 cents on the dollar paid to full-time, year-round employed men. For moms and women of color, the wage gaps are even larger and even more shameful.

“The wage gap doesn’t have to be a fact of life in our nation, or something our children and their children inherit. It’s a measure of lawmakers’ outrageous, long-term failure to take action to make wages fair. It will only disappear when Congress finally passes the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Salary Transparency Act, so President Biden can sign them into law, and when lawmakers at all levels build a robust care infrastructure, including affordable child care, paid family and medical leave, and accessible aging and disability care. Until that happens, the wage gap will continue to punish families, stifle businesses, and cause massive, lasting harm to our economy. We deserve solutions.”

-Statement of Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO, MomsRising

“The unjust, devastating wage gap persists because lawmakers have made the choice to ignore solutions – but they are right in front of us. The Paycheck Fairness Act would modernize and strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to better combat pay discrimination and close the wage gap, including by protecting workers from retaliation for discussing pay, banning the use of prior salary history, and codifying pay data collection. The Salary Transparency Act would help reduce the pay gap by requiring employers to provide the salary range for jobs they post.

“Enactment of these commonsense solutions is long overdue. The wage inequities based on gender, race, and caregiving are intolerable and discriminatory, and their impact is devastating. When women and moms are denied fair wages, they cannot put food on their tables, pay rent or make car payments, purchase school supplies for their kids, or save for college and retirement. Families and businesses cannot succeed, and our economy cannot thrive, without solutions. That’s why America’s moms will fight for fair pay until nobody is shortchanged due to gender, race, or being a mom or caregiver.”

-Statement of Taylor Austin, Campaign Manager, Workplace Justice, MomsRising