April 10, 2018 is Equal Pay Day, symbolizing how far into this year women must work to make the same amount of money that a white man earned by the end of last year. On average women still make 80 cents on the white man’s dollar. Over the course of a woman’s career, the pay inequity may cause a loss of a half million dollars of income.
The statistics also remain steadily worse for women of color, who face an even larger pay gap – 65.8 cents for African-American women and 58 cents for Latin-American women.
New Jersey is on the cusp of enacting the most sweeping equal pay legislation in America! Governor Phil Murphy has indicated that he’ll sign the Diane B. Allen Equal Pay Act two weeks from today. The bill was named for television news anchor Diane Allen, a household name in the Philadelphia media market, who sadly experienced employment discrimination first-hand. She recently retired from the NJ Senate after serving her community for 22 years in the state legislature.
“The discrepancy in pay impacts not only a women’s salary throughout her career but, also her retirement income. It is shameful that in this day and age women in our state still face this type of pay inequity and this hurts not only women, but families throughout New Jersey.” – Assemblywoman Pamela Lampitt