Sex Act Campaign, April, 2006

Support the work of WAGE

The average American woman earns 77 cents for each $1 earned by an equally qualified American man. For women of color, the wage gap is much larger. The WAGE (Women Are Getting Even) Project reports that “African American women earn only 66.8 cents for every dollar a white man earns, while Hispanic women earn only 54 cents to the while male dollar.”

The wage gap is a form of sex discrimination. Disparity in pay leads to real consequences; in the US, women are much more likely to experience poverty than men.

Over a lifetime, the real difference in earning adds up. A female high school graduate misses out on about $700,000 in pay. A college grad loses approximately $1.2 million.

The wage gap takes many forms. The most blatant example is businesses that do not hire or promote qualified women. However, the wage gap also takes more devious forms, including sexual discrimination in the workplace, lower pay for jobs traditionally considered women's work, and the “mommy track,” a lower career track for working mothers and women who have taken maternity leave.

Learn More! Take Action!

• Founded by Dr. Evelyn Murphy, a PhD economist and former Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, the WAGE Project ( www.wageproject.org) aims to “inspire and help working women to take the steps needed so that every woman is paid what she's worth.”

• The WAGE web site features a wage gap calculator, the National Archives of Women's Stories of Sex Discrimination at Work, and “How to Get Even,” an article outlining strategies for transforming your workplace, so that it provides equal pay for women.