What would you do with $1.2 million dollars? Buy a home? Send your children to the best colleges and maybe even go back to school yourself? Maybe you'd travel to the far corners of the world...take up hobbies that you never before had time for. As part of my advocacy work this year, I've taken up the issue of gender pay disparities. And what I've learned is pretty astounding- Despite the passage of the Equal Pay Act in 1964, we have yet to close the pay gap between men and women. In fact, according to economist and former Massachusetts Governor, Evelyn Murphy, when holding education and experience constant, women on average only earn 77 cents to every dollar earned by a man. The disparities are even greater for women of color, as African-American and Latina women earn an average of 69 cents and 58 cents to the dollar respectively. Add this up over a work lifespan of 47 years, and you're looking at a loss of between $700,000 to $1.2 million! Nonetheless, our government has been slow to act. I don't know about you...but I want my house and a Harvard education for my children! Take a look at the figures for yourself at http://www.wageproject.org/. Visit the salary calculator and discover how gender is impacting your earning power. (The graph above can also be found on the aforementioned website as well as others that will curl your toes!)
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