Women Fail to Move Needle on Wage Gap

“DWCF Reacts to News about the Gender Wage Gap”

Tallahassee, Florida – Democratic Women’s Club of Florida, Inc. President Janet Goen reacted to the findings from the latest U.S. Census Bureau report, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2012 with disappointment, “The Census Bureau’s report shows that the gender wage gap has not closed. Far from closing, this report shows that women’s workforce gains have been stalled since 2002.”
Women’s Studies writer and DWCF Communications Chair Rachel Pienta noted, “While the Lily Ledbetter Act was a significant victory for comparable worth in the workplace, the legislation did little to advance women’s earning power in the broader marketplace.”

According to Dr. Pienta, “Women have not made significant progress in closing the earning gap since the 1980s when women’s earnings relative to men climbed from 60.2 cents in 1980 to 71.6 cents by 1990. Women’s earnings have been stalled at earning 77 cents to male wage earners’ dollar since 2002.”

The 1980s were marked by increased numbers of women pursuing advanced levels of education, women entering higher-paying occupations, and women’s willingness to spend more time on the job. Government legislation such as the 1963 Equal Pay Act, as well as measures that granted equal access to education and expanded prohibitions against sex discrimination. Efforts to increase women’s participation in higher wage earning jobs in the STEM fields have yet to bear fruit.

The Democratic Women’s Club of Florida, Inc. had its official beginning in 1956 although there had been individual Democratic women’s clubs in our state for many years.

The DWCF was formed to bring together all Democratic Women’s Clubs in Florida to provide a forum for discussion of public matters, to support qualified candidates for public office and to encourage qualified Democratic women to seek elected office.

For more information, please visit our website at http://democratic-women.org/.

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