Delaney Statement on Equal Pay Day

WASHINGTON – April 8, 2014 is Equal Pay Day, a date that symbolizes when women’s wages catch up to what men were paid in the previous year, reflecting the fact that women on average earn $0.77 cents for every dollar paid to men.

Congressman John K. Delaney (MD-6) is a co-sponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 377) and has signed a discharge petition to bring the Paycheck Fairness Act to the House Floor for a vote. The Paycheck Fairness Act would update and strengthen the Equal Pay Act, which was signed into law by President Kennedy in 1963.

“In the last fifty years our country has made tremendous progress towards greater equality and fairness. Women are now over 50% of college graduates and over 50% of new hires in corporate America, but we still have work to do. The gender gap and the wage gap don’t reflect our values and don’t help our economy. For stronger families, a stronger private sector, and a stronger middle class, we need to empower women.”   

According to the National Partnership for Women & Families, 312,529 family households in Maryland are headed by women and nationwide, nearly 40% of families have mothers as the primary or sole breadwinners.

Delaney is the only former CEO of a publicly-traded company in Congress.

##