Posted on June 07, 2013 |
“That’ll be $4.35.”
As I raced to the National Press Club from Starbucks, I wondered how many chai chargers the wage gap would cover. For those who don’t know what a chai charger is, it’s a chai latte with espresso, and about twenty of them just got me through finals week. For those who don’t know what the wage gap is, it’s the average difference in pay between men and women in equivalent positions. That gap currently comes in at 23 cents on the dollar, or $11,000 a year, on average.
“Only women are asked to ‘lean in,’” Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro said through her blue eye shadow and geometrically wondrous glasses. Rushing in from the House floor, DeLauro delivered the keynote speech at the NWLC’s panel celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act. DeLauro pressed for three policy changes to close the gap: equal pay, access to paid leave, and expanding access to childcare.
Joy-Ann Reid, a contributor to MSNBC and managing editor of theGrio, monitored an engaging panel, which featured Ai-jen Poo from Caring Across Generations and the National Domestic Workers Alliance, Hilary Shelton of the NAACP, Fatima Goss Graves of the NWLC, and AnnMarie Duchon, Associate Director of Accommodation Services at UMass Amherst. AnnMarie described her seven- year fight to close her wage gap. Read more »