WHEREAS, April 2, 2019 symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned the previous year; and
WHEREAS, Equal Pay Day was created in 1996 by the National Committee on Pay Equity as a public awareness event to illustrate the pay gap between men and women; and
WHEREAS, Equal Pay Day involves thousands of local advocates hosting programs and activities which bring awareness to the wage gap while focusing on solutions to eradicate wage discrimination against women and people of color; and
WHEREAS, Red is worn on Equal Pay Day as a symbol of how far women and minorities are in the “red” with their pay; and
WHEREAS, In 1963, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Law, which made it illegal to pay women lower wages for the same job as their male counterparts; and
WHEREAS, In 2009, President Barack Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which prohibits gender-based discrimination and allows women to fight back against discrimination in the workplace regardless of when it began; and
WHEREAS, Strides have been made to address the wage gap, but a wage gap still persists as women make 80 cents for every dollar of a man’s wages. The gap for African American women is even larger at 63 cents and for Latina women it is greatest at 54 cents for every dollar a man makes; and
WHREAS, Over the course of a working lifetime, the wage disparity between women and men costs the average American woman, and her family an estimated $700,000 to $2 million impacting social security benefits and pensions; and
WHEREAS, If the annual wage gap were eliminated, on average, a woman working in Pennsylvania would have enough money for an additional 14 months of child care, approximately 81 more weeks of food for her family, 7.6 more months for mortgage and utility payments, and more than 12 additional months of rent; and
WHEREAS, The wage gap exists in part because women and minorities are segregated to low-paying occupations irrespective of education and qualifications; and
WHEREAS, In order to achieve pay equity, it will take 40 years or until 2059 for women to earn the same salary as a man; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, THAT THE CITY COUNCIL OF PHILADELPHIA, Hereby proclaims April 2, 2019 as Equal Pay Day and thanks those advocates who continue to fight for equal pay for women and minorities throughout the City of Philadelphia and across the country.
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