Policy Resolution LJE-15-25
WHEREAS, according to U.S. Census Bureau data, forty-five million people, or 14.5 percent of the U.S. population, were living in poverty as of 2013, with 27.2 percent of all African Americans, 23.2 percent of all Hispanics, 27.3 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives, and 10.5 percent of all Asians living in poverty;
WHEREAS, 2012 Census figures show that 6.6 percent of the U.S. population lives in deep poverty, with an income 50 percent below the federal poverty line;
WHEREAS, one in three American women live in poverty or are on the brink of it, accounting for 42 million women in the United States;
WHEREAS, any unplanned expense, health emergency, or reduction in work hours or pay, can push many female-led households over the brink;
WHEREAS, forty-one percent of all women do not have an economically secure income, and sixty-two percent of African American women do not have an economically secure income;
WHEREAS, economic stability is calculated as making a minimum salary of $30,000 annually, or twice the amount of a full-time worker making minimum wage;
WHEREAS, thirty-two percent of households are supported by single mothers, with their income accounting for the sole source of financial support for the household, despite the fact that women account for nearly two-thirds of all minimum wage workers in the U.S.;
WHEREAS, according to a study by the National Committee on Pay Equity, White women make only 77 cents to the dollar, and African American women only make 64 cents to the dollar when compared to men doing the same work;
WHEREAS, over five million more women than men live below the poverty line, and two more million women than men live in deep poverty;
WHEREAS, almost sixty percent of working women would earn more if there were pay equity;
WHEREAS, a study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that providing equal pay to women with similar education and hours of work as their male counterparts would cut poverty among working women by 50 percent, and, remarkably, this is true whether women are married, single mothers, or single women living on their own;
WHEREAS, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty, 16 million children in the United States 22 percent of all children live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level $23,550 a year for a family of four, and on average, families need an income of about twice that level to cover basic expenses;
WHEREAS, this same Institute for Women’s Policy Research study found that gender pay equality for women would generate $447.6 billion in additional income for the U.S. economy;
WHEREAS, half of all states pay women less than eighty percent of what their male counterparts make;
WHEREAS, even though progress has been made in gender pay equality through various state laws, there are still five states that have not adopted gender pay equality laws; and WHEREAS, in 2014, the U.S. Senate unsuccessfully sought to reduce gender pay inequality by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, also known as the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have more narrowly defined legitimate reasons for pay disparities between women and men, and given more effective remedies for victims of gender based wage discrimination.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) urges the 114th United States Congress to take additional steps towards reducing gender pay inequality for all Americans, because when men and women are paid equally for equal work, the U.S. economy is improved, and the poverty rate for working women is cut in half;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that NBCSL urges Congress to reintroduce and pass legislation that will promote gender pay equality, thus helping to increase economic self-sufficiency among women; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that a copy of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, members of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, and other federal and state government officials as appropriate.
- SPONSOR: Representative Raumesh A. Akbari (TN)
- Committee of Jurisdiction: Law, Justice, and Ethics Policy Committee
- Certified by Committee Chair: Representative Reginald Meeks (KY)
- Ratified in Plenary Session: Ratification Date is December 12, 2014
- Ratification is certified by: Representative Joe Armstrong (TN), President