Ladybucks

If you're looking for talking points to confront our country's neanderthal stance towards equal pay for equal work, check out John Oliver's diatribe on Last Week Tonight. Zing zing. My favorite bit comes at 2min10sec into the clip... can't wait to use that one.

The stats are as follows: Full-time women workers’ earnings are only about 77 percent of their male counterparts’ earnings (*there is some debate about the exact number, though all agree that there is a significant gap). The pay gap is even greater for African-American and Latina women, with African-American women earning 64 cents and Latina women earning 56 cents for every dollar earned by a Caucasian man. 

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was passed in 2009. The bill revises previous legislation so employees can sue up to 180 days after receiving any discriminatory paycheck. Since then, efforts have stalled. In April, Senate Republicans blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would have banned the practice of salary secrecy for all workers, about half of whom say they are either forbidden or strongly discouraged from discussing their pay with coworkers. Knowing comparable salaries is a key component of successful negotiation, which numerous studies have shown that women do less of, and less successfully, than men.