Why Women Should Vote: To Obtain Equal Pay and Job Opportunities!

Women still make, on average, only 77 cents for every dollar paid to men, and they still face a glass ceiling in their efforts to reach the highest positions in their fields.  Women and their families cannot afford this pay gap, especially in this economy.  By voting, women can make sure our leaders in Washington require employers to treat women fairly in the workplace. 

Many women don’t earn enough to stay afloat, let alone to get ahead.

• Women are nearly two-thirds of minimum-wage workers.  The current minimum wage is insufficient to keep a single woman with children out of poverty even if she works full-time, year-round.
• Women are over-represented in some of the lowest-paying fields and are still left out of many that pay a higher wage.  Child care workers, 96% of whom are women, earn less per week than automotive service technicians and mechanics, 98% of whom are male.
• The recession has hit families across the United States: the overall unemployment rate has reached 9.6 percent.  But female-headed households – which make up 85% of single parent families – have been particularly hard hit, with an unemployment rate of 13.4%.
• More than one in three female-headed families with children were poor in 2009.

Women face unequal pay for equal work, yet laws against pay discrimination have been weakened.

• Lower earnings harm women and the families that rely on their wages, particularly in a difficult economy.  Because women on average earn only about 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, for every $100 a typical woman earns, she has $23 less to spend on necessities such as groceries, housing, and child care. The pay gap means the average woman had to work until April 2010 to make what the average man made by the end of 2009.
• Women of color fare even worse: African-American women earn only 62 cents, and Latinas only 53 cents, for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men.
• An earnings gap exists between women and men in many different kinds of jobs.  For example, female physicians earn 36% less than male physicians.
• Even in jobs primarily held by women, men earn more.  For example, women in sales and sales-related occupations earn nearly 35% less than men in equivalent positions.
• Just one year out of college, women working full-time already earn less than their male colleagues, even when they work in the same field.  By ten years after graduation, the pay gap has widened.
• The pay gap follows women into retirement: unmarried women in the workforce today will receive, on average, about $8,000 a year less in retirement income than their male counterparts.
• Equal pay laws have been weakened over time by courts, making it more difficult for women to prevent and battle wage discrimination.

Women face sexual harassment and other discrimination on the job, and need effective tools to fight it.

• Recent high profile cases show that sex discrimination in the workplace, and pay discrimination in particular, are still all too prevalent.  In addition to court cases, report after report has highlighted discrimination across occupations, making clear that current law fails to provide adequate deterrence and sufficient tools to address widespread pay discrimination in the workplace.

If women vote, Washington will listen.
REGISTER. VOTE.

The National Women’s Law Center is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that has been working to advance and protect women’s legal rights since 1972.  NWLC takes no position on candidates or elections, and nothing herein should be construed as an endorsement of any candidate or party.