Frankel Hosts Women’s Equality Day Roundtable Honoring 94th Anniversary of Passage of the 19th Amendment Ahead of Florida Primary

West Palm Beach, FL — Heading into Florida's primary on Tuesday, Congresswoman Lois Frankel will hold a roundtable on Monday to honor Women’s Equality Day, which marks the passage of women's right to vote.  The discussion will highlight the Women’s Economic Agenda and the need for women to vote to make it a reality. 

“When women get paid fair, decent wages and parents can balance work and family life, America's economy will grow and more children will thrive.  In order for this to happen, women have to elect officials that share their concerns,” said Frankel. “Put simply, when women vote, women succeed, when women succeed, America succeeds.”

Ninety four years ago this week, the 19th Amendment was ratified – granting women the right to vote and guaranteeing their full participation in America’s democracy.  Unfortunately, the expected drop off rate for single women in the 2014 elections in Florida is 32 percent. Despite the progress made, the fight to build a more prosperous life for women and their families remains an ongoing struggle.  This is the mission of the Women’s Economic Agenda – which focuses on equal pay, raising the minimum wage, paid family leave, and affordable quality child care.

In Florida, on average women are paid 84 cents for every dollar men make, amounting to a yearly wage gap of $6,687 between men and women who work full time in the state, according to the National Partnership for Women & Families.  Nationally, women working full-time earn just 77 cents for every dollar that men earn, contributing to a $431,000 lifetime wage gap.

Across the nation, nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women.  Because the minimum wage has not kept up with inflation, millions of Americans work full-time and still live in poverty. That's $16,000 annually in Florida.  If a $10.10 minimum wage was fully phased in by 2016, it would affect over 1.7 million hard-working Floridians and result in more than $2 billion in increased wages.  It would also provide over $1.3 billion in increased state GDP and over 5,000 new jobs statewide.

Quality, affordable child care is also critical for a working parents  to earn a paycheck and make sure that their child gets a safe nurturing start in life.  For too many families, quality child care is either unavailable or out of reach financially.  To address both affordability and quality issues, Frankel introduced “The Working Families Child Care Act of 2014.” The Act would increase by $2 billion the mandatory funding that serves families with infants and toddlers – and would provide $500 million each year through the Child Care and Development Block Grant for states to improve the quality of child care.

Nationwide, only about 12 percent of workers have access to paid family leave through their employers – and less than 40 percent has personal medical leave through an employer-provided disability program. A national paid family and medical leave insurance program would benefit workers, their families, businesses and our economy. Frankel is a co-sponsor of the FAMILY Act which would provide workers with up to 12 weeks of partial income when they take time for their own serious health condition, including pregnancy and childbirth recovery; the serious health condition of a child, parent, spouse or domestic partner; the birth or adoption of a child; and/or for particular military caregiving and leave purposes.