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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 28, 2009
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Sen. Orie Resolution Marks Equal Pay Day in PA

Calls for Study on Wage Gap

The State Senate today adopted a resolution marking April 28th as Equal Pay Day, according to Senator Jane C. Orie (R-40), sponsor of Senate Resolution 100.

"Equal Pay Day is an annual reminder of the fact that it takes the average woman nearly four months into the following year to catch up with what men earned the previous year," said Orie.  "Weekly, women have to work until Tuesday of the following week, to earn what a man earned in the prior week."

Statistics show that women in the workforce have continually encountered the problem of lower salaries than men for equal work.  Despite legislation on both the federal and state levels banning discrimination, differences persist between genders.  Fifty years ago, at the time of the passage of the Equal Pay Act, women earned just 58 cents for every dollar earned by men.  By 2006, that rate had only increased to 77 cents, an improvement of less than half a penny a year.

Orie has also introduced a resolution -- SR 99 -- calling for a study of the wage gap in Pennsylvania, the reasons it exists, differences between industries in the Commonwealth, and whether measures are needed to remedy the problem.

"Nationally, full-time working women earn 80 percent or less of what their male counterparts earn according to a study by the American Association of University Women," Orie said.  "The wage gap hurts women, their families and children -- and it is something we must do something about -- because it flies in the face of fairness."

Contact: 

Nate Silcox
(717) 787-6538