Question: What is Equal Pay Day?
Answer: Equal Pay Day is a symbolic day that illustrates how far into the year a woman must work to earn the same amount made by a man in the previous year. Equal Pay Day traditionally falls on a Tuesday in April. Why a Tuesday? That's the day of the week that women's earnings equal men's earnings from the previous week.
In 2008, Equal Pay Day fell on Tuesday, April 22.
It's commonly known that women on average earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn. For African American women, that figure is only 63 cents. Latinas earn even less - just 53 cents for every dollar.
Equal Pay Day was established in 1996 by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE). It serves as a public awareness event to show how the gap between men's and women's wages requires women to work longer to earn the same amount as men.
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