10 Reasons to Get Back to Work After Labor Day

We all know it can be hard to come back to work after a long weekend. For those of you fighting for women’s equality, here are 10 reasons to roll up your sleeves on the Tuesday after Labor Day:

1. Women typically make 77 cents for every dollar made by their male counterparts, a figure that hasn’t budged in 10 years.
2. Black women typically make 64 cents for every dollar white non-Hispanic men make and Hispanic women typically make 55 cents for every dollar white, non-Hispanic men make.
3. Women are 2/3 of minimum wage workers.
4. The average percentage of women in the 25 highest-wage occupations is more than double the average percentage of women in the 25 lowest-wage occupations.
5. Women continue to be practically absent from many of the higher-paying, nontraditional jobs: for example, only 2.6 percent of construction workers are women.
6. 17.7 million women live in poverty; that figure includes 26% of black women and 24% of Hispanic women.  
7. 40 percent of mothers are primary breadwinners, yet 37 percent of women have no paid sick days.
8. More than twice as many women 65 and over as men of the same age live in poverty.
9. Almost 6,000 pregnancy discrimination charges are filed with the EEOC per year.
10. 30 percent of discrimination charges filed with the EEOC are for sex discrimination.