"Working women are entitled to equal employment opportunity on the job, including the right to equal pay for equal work and to earn a paycheck that is free from unlawful bias. Yet working women continue to tell the U.S. Department of Labor that pay is one of their biggest workplace concerns." (U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau).

The FACTS:

• Families of all income levels face work/family challenges, but low-income families have fewer available solutions. (National Partnership for Women & Family Matter)
• Equal pay is an urgent concern for millions of working women.
• Despite their increased responsibilities as economic providers for their families, women still earn approximately $0.74 cents to every dollar earned by men. For African-American women it is $0.63 cents and for Hispanic women, $0.54 cents.
• Equal pay has been law since 1963. But today, 39 years later women are still paid less than men - even when we have similar education, skills and experience.
• Research indicates that 40% of the women who earn salaries below poverty level would rise above this level if their pay were adjusted for comparable worth.
• Working Women's Equal Pay Checklist

The ACTION:

• Julianne Malveaux, Ph.D., economist and author of Wall Street, Main Street and the Side Street: A Mad Economist Takes a Stroll (Independent Publishers Group), offers these tips to consider if you think you are a victim of wage discrimination:
  1. Be informed - Before accepting a job, do your own detective work to learn what the pay range is, then bargain for the top level. If you don't get that amount, understand why and when you will.
  2. Don't act on rumors - If you find that salaries are blatantly unfair, ask yourself: Does he have more experience? If you can't come up with a legitimate reason, check with your corporate human-resources department to voice your concern.
  3. If you honestly feel that you are being treated unfairly and human-resource management does not address the problem of unequal pay for equal work, seek another recourse. Consider contacting your state's civil- or human-rights commission on employment discrimination or the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
• Twenty states, as of 1998, have added a comparable work status. This provision declares that the work performed in pink and blue-collar jobs may differ, but must be compensated based on its value to the employer. Ask your legislator why New York State has failed to enact such legislation.

The FUTURE:

• Lower wages on the job translates into less Social Security and pensions in retirement.
• Raising wages for women would actually reduce the public's share of elder-care cost. According to the Social Security Administration, women constitute 75% of older recipients of Supplemental Security Income