Gillibrand Pushing Equal Pay Legislation

The Buffalo News | Link to Article

Working women in Erie County earn an estimated $114 a week less than their male counterparts, Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand said Tuesday as she began a push for legislation that aims to force employers to offer equal pay for equal work.

Citing 2011 statistics provided by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, Gillibrand, D-N. Y., said women earn an average of 14.6 percent less than men.

That means that, depending on overall income levels in individual counties

across the state, a woman’s paycheck is likely to range anywhere from $83 to $240 a week less than a man’s, with rural Yates County at the low end of that range and Manhattan at the top.

Though a federal law is already in place that aims to end sexism via paycheck, Gillibrand said those numbers prove that Congress needs to do more.

During travels across the state in her three years as a U.S. senator, “I’ve heard from countless women and mothers who for all their hard work, all their talents, all their experience, are not getting the paycheck they’ve earned and the one that they deserve,” she said.

Gillibrand, who has made family issues a hallmark of her tenure in the Senate, said that’s particularly important because more and more families are counting on a woman’s pay to provide at least part — and often most — of their income.

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