Casey Unveils JEC Report on Pay Inequality, Finding PA Women Face 18.6% Pay Gap

Casey Pushes Congress to Pass Paycheck Fairness Act to Strengthen Equal Pay Laws from 1963

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Bob Casey, Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), released a JEC report finding that women in Pennsylvania make 18.6% less than men. This persistent pay gap harms families and weakens the economy, the report found.

The report entitled, “Mother’s Day Report: Paycheck Fairness Helps Families, Not Just Women,” also shows that mothers’ earnings play a key role in supporting their families.  Nationally, two-thirds of mothers work outside the home and one in three working mothers is the only income earner in her family, the report shows. 

“This new JEC report makes clear that women are still getting paid significantly less than men for the same work,” said Senator Casey.  “The stubborn pay gap harms families who depend on women’s earnings and limits our nation’s economic growth.    We need to close the pay gap and passing the Paycheck Fairness Act will help.” 

The report also finds that mothers’ earnings are especially important to lower-income families.  While mothers’ wages nationally account for 38 percent of total family income for the typical two-earner family, for families at the bottom 10 percent of the income distribution, mothers’ earnings provide nearly half (49.5 percent) of household income.

“The pay gap is both a fairness and an economic issue,” continued Casey. “It’s simply wrong that women aren’t paid the same for doing the same work, but there is a steep economic cost as well. When women have fewer dollars in their paycheck, they have less money to support their families and fewer dollars to put back into the economy."

Senator Casey today called on Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act to strengthen the original Equal Pay Act, which was signed into law by President Kennedy in 1963 and prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of gender.  In 1963, women earned 59 cents for every dollar earned by men.   Nearly 50 years later, there remains a 23 cent gap between men’s and women’s earnings.

The Paycheck Fairness Act:

• Prohibits employers from punishing employees for sharing salary information with co-workers.

• Makes discrimination costly to employers by making those who bring gender discrimination cases eligible for compensatory and punitive damages as is the case with race and ethnicity discrimination cases.

• Develops new training programs for women and girls on how to negotiate compensation packages and recognizes employers who have eliminated pay disparities.

A county-by-county breakdown* showing the number of children in Pennsylvania who are wholly or partially dependent on their mothers’ earnings is below:

*Data only available for counties with populations larger than 50,000

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