WASHINGTON – DNC Chair Tom Perez and DNC Women’s Caucus Chair Lottie Shackelford issued the following joint statement on Equal Pay Day – a day that represents how far into the year women have to work to earn as much as their male counterparts made the previous year:

“We’ve come a long way since 1963 when women made just 59 cents on the dollar. That year, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, finally making it illegal to pay women less than men based on gender. But we also have a long way to go. Today, the pay gap is still 79 cents on the dollar for women on average, and even wider for minority women. Black women make just 66 cents for every dollar a man makes, and Hispanic women only make 60 cents.
 
“Democrats believe that women’s economic prosperity is American economic strength, and that’s why it’s way past time to close the gender pay gap. We all succeed when we knock down the barriers holding families back, and I promise that Democrats will continue to fight to make this a reality.”
 
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