Rogers / 3 Senator Matson

S.R._____

A BILL
To ensure equal pay for equal work among individuals no matter what gender, gender identification, sexual
orientation, race, or ethnicity.
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE
This act may be cited as the Equal Pay Act of 2015.
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
Congress hereby finds and declares that,
1) Full time working white women earn 78 cents to every mans dollar.
2) African-American women earn 64 cents to every white mans dollar.
3)Working mothers make 70 cents (40,000 dollars) for every dollar a working father makes.
4) Studies show that a women near retirement with a defined contribution plan or individual retirement account had
accumulated 34,000 dollars in savings, while her male counterpart held 70,000 dollars.
5) Women with disabilities working full time are paid 69.5 percent of what men without disabilities make.
6) Latina women earn 56 cents to every white mans dollar.
7) The wage gap has remained unchanged since 2007.
8) If equal pay was instituted, it would result in an annual 447.6 billion dollar gain nationally for women and their
families.
9) Women with a high school diploma lose about 700,000 dollars over a lifetime of work.
10) Women with a college degree lose 1.2 million dollars over a lifetime of work and professional school graduates
may lose up to 2 million dollars.
11) Wage inequities follow women into retirement reducing their social security benefits, pensions, savings, and
other financial resources.
12) Women receive less benefits as well as a lower wage.
13) Women of the 21st century are more likely to work for a larger part of their life due to their advanced levels of
education.
14) Womens wages are penalized when they have children, causing them to have lower earnings in the future.
15) Women get fewer raises or promotions because they negotiate less.
16) Men receive benefits of job security from pay equity.
17) When large numbers of women join the labor force in a short period, they are seen as a threat to pay levels,
which results in equal pay action.
18) In commonly known female jobs, there is no male counterpart to compare wage.
19) Men who have a doctoral degree make about 3.8 million dollars per year, while women with the same degree can
expect to make only 2.5 million dollars.
20) Women earn approximately 13,807 less than men each year.
21) A typical 25-year-old woman makes 5,000 dollars less in her career than a typical 25-year-old man.
SECTION 3. STATUTORY LANGUAGE
A) The Equal Pay Act of 2015 shall amend the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to state: any employer must publish general
salary ranges of all occupational positions publicly. This act shall mandate all publicized salaries to include the
lowest and highest salaries without disrupting privacy. Factors determining salary shall be included in salary data and
may be used for paycheck discussion. All employers must allow employees to discuss paychecks no matter what
gender, gender identification, sexual orientation, race, or ethnicity.
B) The Equal Pay Act of 2015 shall be enforced and regulated by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission.
C) Failure to comply with this act of legislation shall result in a fine of 10,000 dollars per employee to the employer.
The Equal Pay Act of 2015 shall be enacted on January 1, 2016 and shall not have an expiration date.

Mock Congress Research Paper: Womens Issues

President Barack Obama once said, We must carry forward the work of the women who came before us to ensure our daughters have
no limits on their dreams, no obstacles on their achievements, and no remaining ceilings to shatter. Women in the United States have long been
subject to discrimination and stereotypes in both society and the work field. Courageous women such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B.
Anthony, Margaret Sanger and many more have fought long and hard for womens rights. In the early 20th century, women were often only called
upon to go to work in times of war. As the century progressed, more and more women began to join the workforce, despite the cult of domesticity
society had placed them in. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 was passed by the Kennedy administration in an effort to provide an equal wage for men
and women. However, the act has been ineffective because employers have found several loopholes within it allowing them to pay women
significantly lower salaries than men. The Equal Pay Act of 2015 should be passed because white women are paid less than men, women of color
are paid less than white women, and the pay gap affects families.
Men and women who perform identical tasks in the workforce are continuously paid completely different salaries. Even though the
Equal Pay Act was instituted in 1963 to prevent this, women in the workforce still find themselves making less money compared to their male
counterparts. In the United States, On average, full-time working women earn just 78 cents for every dollar a man earns. If a man and a woman
who are co-workers are working on a project together and both of them are putting in equal amounts of work, the male will be paid more simply
due to the fact that he is a man. This means that women lose thousands of dollars, According to one analysis by the Department of Labors
Chief Economist, a typical 25-year-old woman working full time would have already earned $5,000 less over the course of her working career
than a typical 25-year old man.. In contrast, men make more than women for doing the same job. Men have always been superior to women,
and the pay inequity keeps them in that superior position. If a woman were not working at the same level as a man, then the pay inequity would
be reasonable. However, that is not always the case and as a result capable and achieving women are losing thousands of dollars because of their
gender. The wage gap between men and women is due to two reasons, Economists generally attribute about 40% of the pay gap to
discrimination making about 60% explained by differences between workers or their jobs. However, even the explained differences between
men and women might be more complicated. Discrimination still remains an issue in the United States, which is a large part of pay inequity. But
the written differences between jobs consist of the slightest details. For example, the classes a woman takes in high school might affect her pay
wage. Basically, if a woman wants to be considered to have a salary similar to her male counterpart, she has to make the right decision all the
time, and even that will not help her because there is nothing she can do about her gender. Equal pay for women has been an issue in America for
centuries, but for women of color or Latino descent, the pay inequity is even greater.
Female salaries are low to begin with, but for women of color and Latina descent, they are even lower. Discrimination between gender
is present in the issue of equal pay as a whole, but discrimination between the races is present as well. African American and Latina women are
paid even less than their white-female counterparts. In the United States, The pay gap is even greater for African-American and Latina women,
with African-American women earning 64 cents and Latina women earning 56 cents for every dollar earned by a white non-Hispanic man. This
is more than 10 cents for African American, and more than 20 cents for Latina women less than what an average white women makes compared
to a mans dollar. It is the same for women of other races as well. For example, Asian-American women must work 15 months to make as much
as white, non-hispanic men do in a year. It is absurd that women have to work an extra three or so months just to make the same amount of
money as men, when they are working the same jobs. In 2009, data was taken to compare earnings of women of different ethnicities, Women'sto-men's earnings ratios were higher among blacks (89 percent) and Hispanics (90 percent) than among whites (79 percent) and Asians (78
percent). Discrimination is very evident here. Though Asian and White women make more, all four groups of women are paid significantly less
than their male counterparts. Non-white women suffer from discrimination in society and in the workforce as well, and have for centuries, but the
negative effect of this is that the lower the salary, the more harm it causes to the woman's family.
The pay inequity between men and women is not only an issue of discrimination, but an issue that affects their families. In the United States,
women have always been expected to keep the household running and take care of the children. Today, women make up half of the workforce,
but because of the pay inequity, they struggle to support the family. According to the Womens Bureau of US Department of Labor, Over the
course of her lifetime, this pay gap will cost a woman and her family lost wages, reduced pensions, and diminished social security benefits. This
means that a single mother would struggle to provide for her family because she would not have the extra support of a second salary coming
from her husband. In a two-parent household, with the wage gap and the loss of jobs traditionally held by men in this economy, reliance on a
womans income in their families budget is even greater. If a man lost his job and the womans salary was the familys only source of income,
the family would suffer tremendously because the womans salary is much less than that of her husbands, especially if they had the same job.
Instead of making half as much, they would be making even less. Close to 1.5 million families rely primarily on the mothers income at one
point.These families have financial trouble often because of the low salaries women make. Despite the fact that the pay gap between men and
women affects the family, people continue to develop opinions against equal pay.
In conclusion, the Equal Pay Act of 2015 should be passed in an effort to help families, prevent discrimination, and close the wage gap.
Women have fought hard for their rights and will persevere until full equality is reached. The next step in the battle for equality is achieving
equal pay for equal work. If the Equal Pay Act of 2015 is passed, then America will be one step closer to becoming the land of the free that it is
supposed to be. So remember the womens rights activists and the impact they have had on this country. They have achieved suffrage rights, the
right for women to have control over their bodies, they have made the world what it is today. Now it is up to the women and men of the 21st
century to continue their battle for womens rights. Vote for the Equal Pay Act of 2015 so that the womens rights will continue to improve and
give women the chance to reach their full potential in the United States.