Today is National Equal Pay Day. Each year the date of this commemoration reflects how far into the current year women must work to match what men earned in the previous year. President Obama marked the occasion by issuing a presidential proclamation:
Generations of women have fought for the advancement of their sisters, daughters, and themselves in acts of great courage—reaching for and winning the right to vote, breaking barriers in America's universities and boardrooms, and flooding the modern workforce with skilled talent. While our nation has come far, obstacles continue to exist for working women, who still earn less on average than working men.
Women are more likely than men to attend and graduate college and yet earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man. This economic and social inequity affects families and over a lifetime decreases the earning benefits of women. And although the income disparity gap between men and women has decreased since the signing of the Equal Pay Act in 1963, we must rededicate ourselves to the fight for economic equality for all.
President Obama has demonstrated clearly that he is committed to equal pay:
That is why one of my first acts as President was to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a law that empowers women who have been discriminated against in their salaries to have their day in court to make it right. I established the National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force to identify persistent challenges to equal pay enforcement and ensure equal pay laws are vigorously enforced throughout our country. My administration also published Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being, the first comprehensive federal report on the status of American women in almost 50 years, which documents that although women have higher graduation rates than men at all academic levels, the wage gap still persists. We are pursuing these efforts because of the simple fact that when women are paid fairly, our whole nation will benefit.
Read President Obama’s entire proclamation here.