WASHINGTON – AAUW's director of public policy and government relations, Lisa Maatz, will be part of a Equal Pay Day panel discussion called "We're Not There Yet -- Equal Pay Day 2009" set for Monday, April 27, at the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAPAF).
CAPAF's Equal Pay Day event will be a live webcast, starting at 11 a.m. To hear the event, go to www.americanprogressaction.org/events/2009/04/equalpay.html/streaming.html. It will feature keynote remarks from Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), who has been described by one nationally syndicated columnist as a "hero for working families" for her work on labor and health issues in Congress. She has led the fight for affordable, quality health care and sponsored legislation that would close the wage gap between men and women.
The panel will highlight the importance of women's earnings to family well-being, discuss why the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was only a down payment in the fight against pay discrimination, and outline what policymakers can do to ensure that every worker earns a fair day’s pay. Joining Maatz on the panel are Jessica Arons, director of the Women's Health and Rights Program, Center for American Progress Action Fund; Jocelyn Samuels, vice president for education and employment, National Women’s Law Center; and Heather Boushey, senior economist at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, who will moderate the panel.
Tuesday, April 28, is Equal Pay Day. The observance reminds the nation of the gross inequities facing women, who must work from January 2008 through April 2009 to earn what their male counterparts received in 2008 alone. On average, women earn just 78 percent of what men earn.
For Equal Pay Day, AAUW has released new state-by-state earnings comparisons by gender that show that the wage gap is stubbornly in place, despite the overall positive effect earning a college degree has on women’s wages. At the top of the AAUW ranking is Vermont, where female college graduates age 25 or older make 87 percent of what male college graduates that age earn. At the bottom is Louisiana, where women college graduates age 25 or older are paid just 65 percent of what their male counterparts are paid.
"AAUW believes that Senate passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 182) is the next critical step in making real progress in closing the persistent and damaging wage gap between women and men," said Maatz. "I am honored be part of the CAP program and a conversation that is focused on solutions."
As AAUW's top policy adviser, Maatz works to advance AAUW's priority issues on Capitol Hill, through the executive branch, and in coalition with other organizations. She is a sought-after speaker on gender equity and advocacy issues and is a frequent speaker on Capitol Hill. In addition to pay equity, her areas of expertise include gender equity in education and Title IX, retirement security, work-life balance and workplace opportunity, and other civil rights issues related to women and girls. Maatz is a former congressional aide to Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Ohio University, has two master’s degrees from Ohio State, and holds an adjunct appointment with the Women and Politics Institute at American University.
"We're excited to be partnering with AAUW and the NWLC for this event to further raise awareness about the persistent gender pay gap in this country and the steps we can take to rectify this problem. Women deserve to be paid fully for their hard work, and their families need their earnings now more than ever," said Jessica Arons, director of the Women's Health and Rights Program, Center for American Progress Action Fund.
