Employment

The National Women Law’s Center writes to express its opposition to the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013, H.R. 1046, introduced by Representative Martha Roby on April 9th. The Center opposes this legislation out of concern for its impact on all workers, and in particular, its impact on women workers who still shoulder the majority of caregiving responsibilities and make up a disproportionate share of workers in low-wage jobs.

Fifty years after the Equal Pay Act was signed into law, women make up nearly half the workforce, but their paychecks still lag far behind men’s. Today the typical American woman who works full time, year round is paid only 77 cents for every dollar paid to her male counterpart. This gap in earnings translates into $11,084 less per year, leaving women and their families shortchanged.  This fact sheet details several important factors that contribute to the wage gap including discrimination; racial disparities; occupational segregation, which includes women’s concentration in low-wage jobs, women’s limited access to higher paying jobs that are nontraditional for women, and the devaluation of women’s work; and women’s greater responsibility for caregiving.