Sears calls for pay equality for women

Pay Equality Day, the day when women’s salaries catch up to their male counterparts pay from the prior year, was observed on Tuesday, April 24.
City Councilmember Helen Sears, chair of the Women’s Issues Committee, joined representatives of several women’s groups including the New York Women’s Agenda and her colleagues, Leticia James and Leroy Comrie on the steps of City Hall to observe Pay Equality Day, and call for fairness for women and people of color.
According to Sears, “Over eighty years after getting the right to vote, women are still being treated unfairly in this country. Women on average make 77 cents to every dollar that men make and women of color make only 71 cents on the dollar. We must continue to make people aware of this issue and not rest until women are paid properly for the work that they do,” she said.
Although the Equal Pay Act was signed into law by President Kennedy in 1963, the gap in wages between men and women is higher now than when the law took effect, according to information supplied by the National Committee on Pay Equity.