WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden argued Wednesday that the gender pay gap has hurt the economy, bringing members of the US women’s national soccer team to the White House to help set new equality goals.
Wednesday marked “Equal Pay Day” – that’s how far in the year women have to work on average to make up for the wage differentials between what men and women earned in the previous year. The Census Bureau estimates that a woman who works full-time would earn about 82 cents for every dollar paid to a man.
Biden and his wife, Jill, hosted a roundtable with Margaret Purce and Megan Rapinoe of the US women’s national soccer team, and other members of the squad who were virtually in attendance. The president then signed a proclamation in honor of the day.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re electrician, accountant, or part of the best soccer team in the world,” Biden said. “The pay gap is real. And this team is living proof that you can be the very best at what you do and still fight for equal pay. “
The women’s team has won the World Cup four times, most recently in 2019. But that same year, it sued the American Football Association for wage discrimination. The suit was rejected in May because the women had accepted a different base salary than the men’s soccer team. The women’s team plans to appeal the dismissal.
“Despite those victories. I have been devalued, disrespected and fired for being a woman, ”Rapinoe said with the president on Wednesday. “And I’ve been told I don’t make more than less because I’m a woman.”
The pay gap affects the entire economy in ways that exacerbate other problems, including racial inequality. The National Women’s Law Center found that black women earn only 63 cents for a dollar paid to a non-Hispanic white man, while Hispanic women earn only 55 cents. That difference translates into a loss of about $ 1 million in income over a lifetime.
“These are not just women’s issues,” Cecilia Rouse, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said at Wednesday’s press conference. “They affect all families, our economy’s ability to recover and our country’s competitiveness.”
The Biden government is pushing several policies to narrow the gap. It supports the Paycheck Fairness Protection Act, which would strengthen a 1963 law by improving employer transparency on wages, requires employers to demonstrate that any discrepancies are due to professional qualifications, and that employers do not retaliate against employees who express concern about wage differentials.
The administration also supports paid family leave and better access to childcare. A research paper from February of the San Francisco Federal Reserve found that the pandemic caused mothers to leave the labor market disproportionately often, as many in the classroom lacked school and childcare options. The paper noted that a flexible work schedule would likely make life easier for mothers with a job.