But some lawmakers and women’s advocacy groups are looking for more than words: Mikulski and DeLauro in their op-ed, along with The National Women’s Law Center and the ACLU are urging Obama to take executive action on equal pay.
The NCPE and liberal groups like the National Women’s Law Center and the National Partnership for Women & Families maintain that women make only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, and that the number has been stuck there for nearly ten years.
The chained CPI's effects would be cumulative for Witherspoon and other seniors like her, since each year's COLA would be calculated off a lower benefit amount as the years roll on. It's an especially important consideration for women, who tend to outlive men.
Fatima Goss Graves is with the National Women’s Law Center in Washington, DC. She says there are other factors contributing to the wage gap. Women still face discrimination when they try to enter fields dominated by men – things like tech, engineering or manufacturing.
Lifetime earnings are even lower for women of color because they face higher levels of unemployment and poverty rates. In March 2013 unemployment rates of black and Latina women were significantly higher than their white counterparts at 12.2 percent and 9.3 percent respectively compared to white women at 6.1 percent.
The Supreme Court held in Roe v. Wade that abortion is a constitutional right protected under the right to privacy, determining that states must show compelling reason to place any restrictions on that right. An exception the court set out is for licensing doctors in order to safeguard public health, which states explicitly can do, according to the National Women’s Law Center.
A coalition including Planned Parenthood and the National Women's Law Center urged their members and supporters to file comments, and ultimately flooded the Health and Human Services Department with nearly 350,000 submissions.
The National Women's Law Center said chained CPI would be particularly onerous for women. Thirteen percent of women between 65 and 69 rely on Social Security for all their income, versus 10 percent of men, according to the center.
