Today is equal pay day for women in the US
Summary of story from Womensenews, April 12, 2011
Today is equal pay day in the US, the date that symbolizes how far into 2011 women must work — on average — to earn what men earned in 2010. That’s 15 weeks in all.
Think about all that work: 40 hours multiplied by 15 weeks. That’s 600 hours. On top of that work there’s the cooking, cleaning, picking up, dropping off, dressing and bathing.
But this is not news. Women have been trying to get paycheck fairness for years.
What’s more notable right now is the Republican-led attack on child labor laws that will affect female teens disproportionately.
Gender disparities in child labor are startling. In the 16-19 age group 176,000 boys in 2010 were paid below the minimum wage, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For girls last year the number was 304,000.
Fully 12 percent of young women, versus 6.9 percent of young men, are already paid sub-minimum wages.
These teens mostly work in food preparation or serving, with jobs such as burger flipping, hash slinging, French frying and soda jerking with the highest levels of teen employment and sub-minimum wages.
Republicans in several states (Utah, Ohio, Minnesota, Maine and Missouri) are proposing sweeping changes to child labor legislation, including allowing sub-minimum wages for workers under the age of 20.
At the $5.25 per hour rate proposed by Maine Republicans, young women wouldn’t get to equal pay day until June.