Fact Sheets

A Higher Minimum Wage Would Benefit Working Women, Their Families and All New Jerseyans

February 06, 2013

This fact sheet, produced by NWLC and the Rutgers Center for Women and Work, explains how an increase in the minimum wage and tipped minimum wage would benefit women and their families, help close the wage gap between women and men's earnings, and boost New Jersey's economy.

Coverage of the Women’s Preventive Health Services: Calling Your Student Health Plan

February 01, 2013

We’ve updated our materials on calling your insurance plan. Please visit this page.

Sex Stereotypes: How They Hurt Women in the Workplace - and the Wallet

January 30, 2013

Today, women who work full time, year round are paid only 77 cents on average for every dollar paid to their male counterparts.  That’s shortchanging women and their families more than 10,000 dollars per year.  This wage gap—which hasn’t changed in a decade —occurs in part because of outdated stereotypes about women and their “proper” place in society and in the workforce. This fact sheet explains how these stereotypes contribute to women receiving lower pay for the same work, fewer promotions, fewer opportunities for advancement at work, fewer workforce training opportunities for higher-paying jobs, and being concentrated in low-paying positions in traditionally female fields. 

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

January 29, 2013

Women today are paid, on average, only 77 cents for every dollar paid to men. And the gap is even worse for women of color - African American women earn only 64 cents and Latina women earn only 55 cents for each dollar earned by males. To help address this unfair and unacceptable wage gap, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act on January 29, 2009,1 restoring the protection against pay discrimination that was stripped away by the Supreme Court’s decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. This fact sheet further explains the legislative fix offered by the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009.

Health Care Refusals Harm Patients: The Threat to Reproductive Health Care

January 25, 2013

Across the nation, the personal beliefs of individuals and institutions are interfering with patients’ access to health care.

2012 State Level Abortion Restrictions: A Dangerous Overreach into Women’s Reproductive Health Care

January 22, 2013

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court ruling that affirmed a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion.  Yet, anti-abortion opponents in the states continue to relentlessly attack this right.  In 2012, states passed 43 restrictions on abortion, the second highest number of new abortion restrictions passed in a single year.   These new obstacles to abortion represent a dangerous overreach into women’s reproductive health care and personal medical decisions.

How To Find Out If Your Health Plan Is Covering Women’s Preventive Services with No Co-Pay, as Required by the Health Care Law

January 22, 2013

Your health plan should be providing coverage for the women’s preventive services with no cost-sharing, if your plan is not grandfathered.* The best way to find out for sure that you have coverage for the women’s preventive services without cost sharing and to get information on how these services will be covered is to call your insurance company.

Below is a phone script for you to use when talking to your insurance company. ( If you are not getting the answers you need, call the National Women’s Law Center PILL4US hotline at 1-866-PILL4US or email pill4us@nwlc.org. We are here to help you if you aren’t getting the women’s preventive health services without a co-pay, as required by the health care law.

40 Threats to A Woman’s Right to Decide Whether to Have an Abortion

January 18, 2013

January 22, 2013, is the 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Unfortunately, this historic Supreme Court decision and the fundamental constitutional right to abortion that it confirmed have been under ever-increasing attack. The following items summarize 40 of the current threats to Roe and to a woman’s right to safe, legal abortion.

Even More Than Abortion: The Constitutional Importance of Roe v. Wade and the Right to Privacy

January 18, 2013

Roe did far more than establish the right to abortion; it solidified and expanded the constitutional “right to privacy,” which has also been described as the right to autonomy or to be let alone.  This right to privacy is part of the right to liberty protected by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, which state that no person shall be deprived of “life, liberty or property, without due process of law.”

Roe v. Wade and the Right to Abortion

January 18, 2013

The long-standing, well-established constitutional right to privacy places limits on the government’s ability to interfere with a person’s most basic, personal decisions – including the decision whether and when to bear children.  The right to abortion was first recognized four decades ago, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed its central holding, yet this fundamental constitutional right is under ever-increasing attack.