What we need to do is raise the minimum wage. We also need to hold onto equal pay. Women work for 76 cents on the dollar for the same work that men do. That's not right in America.
In my first 100 days, I'll work with both parties to make the biggest investment in good-paying jobs in decades. We'll also raise the minimum wage - a big deal for the nearly two-thirds of minimum-wageworkers who are women. And we'll give women the tools they need to fight for equal pay. This isn't just a "women's issue"? - it's an issue every American should care about, no matter their gender.
In my view, we need a massive federal jobs program which puts millions of our people back to work. We must end our disastrous trade policies. We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. And we have to fight for pay equity for women.
On the campaign, I've had the privilege of advocating for important issues that affect all women, like demanding equal pay for equal work, pushing to raise our minimum wage, and promoting the idea of paid family leave.
We have to make the economy fairer. That starts with raising the national minimum wage and also guarantee, finally, equal pay for women's work.
As we move beyond Women's History Month, I am committed to advancing legislation to raise the minimum wage and ensure women are paid equally for equal work.
Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment. Women deserve equal pay for equal work.
The fact that women are paid 73 cents on the dollar for work equivalent to work being done by men is unacceptable in America.
We can afford to pay workers fairly, and it is the right thing to do. We also need equal pay for equal work.
I believe in raising the minimum wage and equal pay for work.
If women really earned fifty-nine cents to the dollar for the same work as men, what business could compete effectively by hiring men at any level?
We need to understand that we need to get the work-life balance better for both men and women - by men taking on more of those roles of homemaking and child rearing - it's an important area that we still haven't got right. I do worry; it's not just in the United States, it's also in parts of Latin America.
Plain and simple, Congress must act to meet the needs of our constituents. We can do that by strengthening families, increasing the minimum wage, and ensuring equal pay for equal work.
Equal pay for equal work continues to be seen as applying to equal pay for men and women in the same occupation, while the larger point of continuing relevance in our day is that some occupations have depressed wages because women are the chief employee. The former is a pattern of sex discrimination, the latter of institutionalized sexism.
Fixing a broken immigration system. Protecting our kids from gun violence. Equal pay for equal work, paid leave, raising the minimum wage. All these things still matter to hardworking families; they are still the right thing to do; and I will not let up until they get done.
We have Latinas in California making 55 cents on the dollar. Black women making 63 cents on the dollar. White women making 78 cents on the dollar. It doesn't change very much year by year, it might go up or down a penny, but oftentimes, the years that it goes up are the same years that men are making a little bit more. It's pretty much always in proportion.
I was on the committee that helped raise the minimum wage here in Seattle. I introduced a statewide bill to raise the minimum wage in Washington state my first year in the state senate, and I really believe that raising the federal minimum wage, while not the answer to everything, addresses a lot of the issues at the very bottom.