RESOLUTION CHAPTER _______

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 155—Relative to Equal Pay Day.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

ACR 155, Campos. Equal Pay Day

This measure would proclaim April 12, 2016, as Equal Pay Day in recognition of the need to eliminate the gender gap in earnings by women and to promote policies to ensure equal pay for all.

WHEREAS, More than 50 years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act, women, especially minority women, continue to suffer the consequences of unequal pay; and

WHEREAS, According to a report by the National Partnership for Women & Families, women in California earned a median of $0.84 for each dollar earned by men as of October 2014; and

WHEREAS, As reported by the United States Census Bureau, women working full time, year round in 2013, typically earned 78 percent of what men earned, indicating little change or progress in pay equity; and

WHEREAS, According to “The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap,” a report by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the gender pay gap is even larger for women of color, where African American women earned 63 percent and Latina women earned 54 percent of what men earned in 2014; and

WHEREAS, According to “Graduating to a Pay Gap,” a 2012 research report by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the gender pay gap is evident one year after college graduation, even after controlling for factors known to affect earnings, such as occupation, hours worked, and college major; and

WHEREAS, In 2011, the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce found that college-educated women working full time earn $650,000 less than their male peers do over the course of a lifetime; and

WHEREAS, In 2009, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed into law, which gives back to employees their day in court to challenge a pay gap. Now we must pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would amend the Equal Pay Act by closing loopholes and improving the law’s effectiveness; and

WHEREAS, In 2015, California passed SB 253, strengthening the state’s existing Equal Pay Act by eliminating loopholes that prevent effective enforcement of gender-based discrimination and empowering employees to discuss pay without fear of retaliation, providing one more tool to tackle the problem; and

WHEREAS, Nearly four in 10 mothers are primary breadwinners in their households and nearly two-thirds are primary or significant earners, making pay equity critical to families’ economic security; and

WHEREAS, A lifetime of lower pay means women have less income to save for retirement and less income counted in a social security or pension benefit formula; and

WHEREAS, Fair pay equity policies can be implemented simply and without undue costs or hardship in both the public and private sectors; and

WHEREAS, Fair pay strengthens the security of families today and eases future retirement costs while enhancing the American economy; and

WHEREAS, Tuesday, April 12, symbolizes the time in 2016 when the wages paid to American women catch up to the wages paid to men from the previous year; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature proclaims Tuesday, April 12, 2016, as Equal Pay Day in recognition of the need to eliminate the gender gap in earnings by women and to promote policies to ensure equal pay for all; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.

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