April 9, 2013 is Equal Pay Day – an indicator in how far into each year a woman must work to earn as much as a man earned in the previous year. It’s not a day to celebrate, however. According to the United States Census Bureau on average, full-time working women earned 77 cents to every dollar earned by men; in Indiana, this number falls to 75 cents to every dollar. The gap is even worse for women of color.
This is not explained by differing career choices between women and men; taking into account equal educational attainment, position type, and other factors, a gap remains. Over a lifetime of work this loss adds up, as women lose out on $11,084 per year and $502,105 in a lifetime due to the wage gap.
Women’s Fund of Central Indiana is committed to investing in the lives of women and girls in Central Indiana. In doing so, the organization wants to raise awareness and call attention to the persistent and sizable gap between men’s and women’s wages.
Progress in closing the gender earnings gap has slowed considerably since 1990. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that wage equity won’t be achieved until 2056. To put this in perspective, in 2009, an adult with two preschool-age children needed to make $22.15 an hour or $46,788 per year in order to support her family without outside assistance. For college educated women ages 25 and older, Indiana ranked 20th in 2008, with men earning $62,700 annually, and women earning $45,500.
“Equal Pay Day is an unfortunate marker of how far we must go before the gender wage gap is closed,” said Jennifer Pope Baker, executive director, Women’s Fund. “The wage gap hasn’t shifted in nearly a decade, leaving women and families to continue to suffer the effects of lost wages.”
Women’s Fund continues to encourage businesses to pay women fairly, and to support and draw attention to organizations helping women develop skills to gain and maintain high-quality employment.
