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#EqualPayDay Brings Attention to Wage Difference
This is What’s Trending Today…
Tuesday was National Equal Pay Day in the United States.
The day is designed to bring attention to wage differences between American men and women. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that in 2014, women were paid 79 cents for every one dollar that men earned.
Equal Pay Day marks how far into the calendar year women must work to earn the pay that men earned last year.
The Census Bureau reported that the average salary for an American woman with a full-time job is $39,621. In comparison, the average salary for a man who works full-time is $50,383.
On social media, the hashtag #EqualPayDay trended worldwide.
President Barack Obama gave an Equal Pay Day speech on Tuesday. He said that, “the pay gap between men and women offends our values as Americans.”
Obama also noted the pay differences in the world of professional soccer.
Last month, members of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team brought a wage discrimination case to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The difference in pay was sizeable. Each player on the Men’s National Team earns $263,320 a year if the team wins 20 “friendly” matches. Each player on the Women’s National Team earns $99,000 a year if the team wins those 20 matches.
The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team has won three World Cup championships. The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team has never won a World Cup title.
One Twitter user joked, “I don't support equal pay in US Soccer. Our women's team won the World Cup three times, so they should be getting *lots* more than the men.”
Naturally, some jobs require equal pay for men and women. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton posted a video on Twitter Tuesday of a young girl asking her, “Do you think when you’re president you’ll be paid as much as if it were a man?”
Clinton’s answer? “This is one of the jobs where they have to pay you the same. But there are so many examples where that doesn’t happen.”
And that’s Trending Today.
I’m Ashley Thompson.
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Words in This Story
salary - n. an amount of money that an employee is paid each year
offend- v. (formal) to be against what people believe is acceptable or proper