Equal Pay Day
Equal Pay Day is commemorated annually, when groups organize nationally to raise awareness of the gender wage gap throughout the country. This day, each April, symbolizes how long it takes for an average women to catch up to a white man’s wages from the previous year. For white women, Equal Pay Day is April 12, 2018. For women of color, their “Equal Pay Days” come much later in the year. African American women need to work till August 7th to earn what their white male counterparts earn by December 31st of the previous year. For Native American women its September 27th and Latinas won’t experience their Equal Pay Day till November 11th. The lack of paid family leave increases these pay gaps every day and achieving paid family leave for all women will be critical in achieving equal pay for all women.
What can you do to help?
- April 17, 2018: Join us at a film screening in Harrisburg for Zero Weeks, a dynamic new film that follows four families as they struggle to remain healthy and economically strong without having access to paid family leave as they negotiate how to remain in their jobs and take care of the elders, children, and those who are critically ill and need care in their families. Register here.
- April 18, 2018: Can’t make it to Harrisburg? Join us at a Zero Weeks screening in Pittsburgh at JustFilms instead! Register here.
Women and Girls Foundation and Equal Pay Day
Hundreds of women and men have attended previous Equal Pay Day activities in Southwest PA since 2006. WGF has partnered with local organizations to bring you Equal Pay Day activities in Allegheny, Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland counties.
When the Women and Girls Foundation first began efforts to raise awareness of the wage gap and remedy this issue in Southwest PA, women were making less than 70 cents for every dollar a man was making. Since then, WGF has worked with city and county leaders throughout the region to pass wage equity legislation and to support the issue of fair pay for women. Today women are making 75 cents to a man’s dollar. We have made change happen in our region, but there is still significant work to be done in Southwest PA and throughout the state to close the gap for women in Pennsylvania.
Join the Movement!
Just take your picture holding the Will Work for Equality sign (or make your own) and take the Equality Pledge, then send us both docs to info@wgfpa.org and we’ll add your pic to our online gallery!
Dr. Goddess’ Poem
View the poem by Dr. Goddess entitled I Apologize: An Open Poem to My Mother (Freda C. Ellis) and All Hardworking Women Who Are Misunderstood.