Center for American Progress:
Today marks Equal Pay Day, the day that "symbolizes how far into the year a woman must work, on average, to earn as much as a man earned the previous year." Significant strides in achieving pay equity have been made this year, however, with President Obama's signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. But women in the U.S. still make just 78 cents for every dollar a man earns, although a new GAO report finds that the pay gap between men and women in the federal workforce is shrinking.. The average woman loses $434,000 over the course of her career; counterintuitively, the more education the woman has, the more money she is poised to lose. The Center for American Progress's Jessica Arons, Heather Boushey, and Lauren Smith write that "the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act ensures that workers can seek restitution for unequal pay, but the Paycheck Fairness Act, which still needs Senate approval, would take a number of proactive steps to close and eventually end the pay gap altogether." The Paycheck Fairness Act "would deter wage discrimination by closing loopholes in the Equal Pay Act," which have hindered the effectiveness of the law since it passed 46 years ago. Given the context of the current economic recession, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) told The Progress Report yesterday that wage discrimination "is now a heavier burden on women and the economic security of families." Pay equity "is not a woman's issue. This is a family issue," DeLauro said.
LABOR -- SWINE FLU HIGHLIGHTS HIGH PERCENTAGE OF WORKERS WITHOUT PAID SICK LEAVE: In light of the spread of swine flu -- which has now been confirmed to infect at least 50 people in the United States -- the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has issued guidelines for staying healthy and preventing the spread of the disease. "If you get sick, CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them," their guidelines state. While staying home from work when ill makes sense, a large number Americans simply may not be able to afford to do so. Currently, nearly 50 percent of private-sector workers have no paid sick days. For low-income workers, the number jumps to 76 percent and climbs to 86 percent for food service workers. These workers have to decide between the health of themselves and their colleagues, and the wages that they lose by staying home. While ill employees going to work contributes to the spread of diseases like swine flu, there is also a negative economic impact. According to the National Partnership for Women and Families, "when sick workers are on the job, it costs our national economy $180 billion annually in lost productivity. For employers, this costs an average of $255 per employee per year and exceeds the cost of absenteeism and medical and disability benefits." Of the top 20 economies in the world, the U.S. is currently the only one with no national standard for paid sick days. In an effort to address the problem, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) plan to introduce the Healthy Families Act in Congress next month which would "guarantee workers up to seven paid sick days a year to recover from an illness or care for a sick family member."
On a positive note: A new New York Times/CBS News poll released today finds that 42 percent of Americans support same-sex marriage, a 9 point jump from March.
No comments:
Post a Comment