On April 14 the Bend Branch of the American Association of University Women will be “celebrating” Equal Pay Day. April 14 symbolizes the point in the next year to which an average American woman must work to match a man’s earnings from the previous year.
In order to draw attention to this dismal fact, Mayor Jim Clinton and the Bend City Council have been asked to proclaim April 14 Equal Pay Day – to highlight the fact that American women only make on average 78 percent of what men earn.
Additionally, emails featuring an apple pie resting on the American flag with 22 percent of the pie missing, signifying missing women’s wages, are being sent to all state and federal elected officials on April 14. They are urging legislators to support pay equity legislation and asking them to ensure that there is no gender pay gap within their own offices.
President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law on June 10, 1963, when women were paid an average of 59 cents for every dollar men were paid. Yet, 50 years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act, women — especially minority women — continue to suffer the consequences of unequal pay.
Women in Oregon are not excluded from this injustice. In 2013, Oregon women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median usual weekly earnings of 80.8 percent of the $873 median usual weekly earnings for their male counterparts. The earnings ratio of women in the Second Congressional District of Oregon is only 80 percent of the earnings of their male counterparts.
Organized in 1881, the American Association of University Women has been on the front lines for pay equity since 1913. They have worked together as national grassroots organization to improve the lives of millions of women. The Bend AAUW branch was established 1931 and runs a variety of programs advancing equity for women and girls. взять в займ с 18 лет
