Event demonstrates to our children the differences in pay between men and women
Assemblyman Al Stirpe hosted an event on Thursday, Oct. 13 to talk to local children, and their parents, about pay equity and highlight the importance of fair and equal pay for women. The event included Halloween-themed activities to illustrate the wage gap and show kids why it matters to stand up for equal rights.
Although laws prohibiting overt employment discrimination exist, in many instances, discrimination still happens in the form of pay disparity.
“Wage disparity for women has to go. Women earn less with their weekly paychecks. And, to further compound that, women earn less for their retirement over the course of their lifetimes. Add to the fact that women live longer than men, savings often must be stretched across more years of retirement. When you put all these factors, you see that eliminating the wage gap must happen now,” said Jamila Sherman, Health Unit Coordinator at Crouse Hospital. “I want to thank Assemblyman Stirpe for backing several pieces of legislation that will strengthen safeguards for women, and ensure that we are paid fairly for our work.”
While current laws help provide for pay equity, they have proven insufficient. Nationally, women are on average paid only 78 cents for every dollar paid to men. In New York State, that gap is smaller – 87 cents for every dollar paid to men. Yet this is simply not enough. In Onondaga County, women are getting paid about $132 less a week or $6,300 less a year than their male counterparts. In a county where nearly 40,000 households depend on a woman’s paycheck, that money could go a long way toward buying groceries, paying bills and saving for the future.
“We teach our kids it’s important to be fair and stand up for themselves, yet here in New York, we still only pay women 87 cents for every dollar a man earns,” said Stirpe. “Women work just as hard as men do and deserve a full day’s pay. It’s time to stop shortchanging women—our sisters, mothers, aunts, nieces, daughters, wives. I’m committed to ensuring fair wages for all hardworking people in our state.”