WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden argued Wednesday that the pay gap between men and women has hurt the economy, bringing members of the U.S. women’s national football team to the White House to help set new goals for equality.
Wednesday marked “Equal Pay Day,” which is how far into the year women have to work on average to make up for the pay gap between what men and women earned the year before. The Census Bureau estimates that a full-time working woman would earn about 82 cents for every dollar paid to a man.
Biden and his wife, Jill, hosted a roundtable discussion with Margaret Purce and Megan Rapinoe of the U.S. women’s soccer team and other members of the staff who virtually attended. The president then signed a proclamation in honor of the day.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re an electrician, an accountant, or you’re part of the damn best football team in the world,” Biden said. “The wage gap is real. And this team is the living proof that you can be the best at what you do and you still have to fight for equal pay. “
The women’s team has won the World Cup four times, the most recent in 2019. But it sued the U.S. Football Federation that same year for wage discrimination. The lawsuit was dismissed in May because the women had accepted a base salary structure different from that of the men’s soccer team. The women’s team plans to appeal the dismissal.
“Despite these victories. I have been devalued, disrespected and fired because I am a woman, “Rapinoe told the president on Wednesday. “And I’ve been told she doesn’t deserve more than less, because I’m a woman.”
The wage gap affects the entire economy in a way that exacerbates other problems, including racial inequality. The National Center for Women’s Rights found that black women earned only 63 cents for a dollar paid to a non-Hispanic white man, while Hispanic women earned only 55 cents. This difference translates into a loss of income of approximately one million dollars over a lifetime.
“It’s not just women’s issues,” Cecilia Rouse, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said at Wednesday’s press conference. “They affect all families, the resilience of our economy and the competitiveness of our nation.”
The Biden administration is pushing for various policies to help close the gap. It supports the Protection of Wage Equity Act, which would improve a 1963 law improving the wage transparency of employers, which would force employers to show that discrepancies are due to job qualification and prevent employers from retaliating against workers who express concerns about wage disparities.
The administration also supports paid family leave and increased access to child care. A February research paper of the San Francisco Federal Reserve found that the pandemic caused mothers to disproportionately leave the labor market, as many had no options for school or childhood care. The paper notes that a flexible work schedule is likely to make life easier for working mothers.