47 Years After Equal Pay Act, Women Still Paid Less Than Men

by James Parks, Jun 10, 2010

Forty-seven years after President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, women still are not being paid the same as men for equivalent work. On average, women earn about 78 cents for every dollar earned by men. For women of color, African American women and Latinas, the gap is even wider. According to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wages of full-time, year-round workers in 2008 stood at $35,745 for women and $46,367 for men. That’s $10,622 less per year for women and their families in a difficult economy.

The U.S. Senate is considering the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would give employees the tools they need to close the wage gap between men and women and provide the government with enforcement power to correct pay inequities. The U.S. House passed the bill last year. The advocacy group MomsRising has an action here to urge your senator to close the wage gap and back the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Minnesota Nurses Stage 24-Hour Strike for Patient Safety

Workday Minnesota editor Barb Kucera sends this account of yesterday’s one-day strike by 12,000 Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) nurses over patient care issues in contract negotiations. In California, a similar strike by some 13, 000 California Nurses Association (CNA) nurses was blocked by a court order. Click here for more. Both MNA and CNA are affiliated with National Nurse United (NNU).

Members of the Minnesota Nurses Association walked the picket lines at 14 Twin Cities hospitals, in the largest nurses’ strike in U.S. history.

Alliance for Retired Americans - Friday Alert, June 11, 2010

Obama Talks to Seniors, including the Illinois Alliance President, at Tele-Town Hall
The Alliance continues its involvement in the implementation process of the health care reform that President Obama signed into law in March. On Tuesday, the Alliance, along with several other organizations, helped the White House and President Obama organize a tele-town hall meeting to explain the new health care law to seniors. The president emphasized that his administration has already started to send out $250 rebate checks for those who fall into the Medicare Part D "doughnut hole" prescription drug coverage gap. Yesterday (Thursday, June 10th - three weeks earlier than initially scheduled), checks from the federal government began to go out to some 80,000 seniors who hit the doughnut hole earlier this year. The President went on to remind seniors that in 2011, those who fall in the doughnut hole will receive a 50 percent discount on brand name drugs, and that by 2020, the doughnut hole will be eliminated. Alliance members joined Obama in person at his Wheaton, Maryland forum.