Equal Pay Day

Today is Equal Pay Day, which means today women have finally earned what their male counterparts earned in 2011.  Women earn 77 cents per dollar that men earn; therefore, women have to work an extra 600 hours to make up that difference.  The wage gap is even larger for women in color.  The wage gap also appears in all fifty states and the district.  The district has the smallest wage gap with women making 91 cents for every dollar men make.  Wyoming has the largest wage gap with women making about 67 cents for every dollar men make.  One way to reduce the wage gap is to raise the minimum and  sub-minimum wage.  The federal sub-minimum wage or the wage for tipped workers is 2.13.  Can you believe that?  That has been the set wage for 21 years now.  Now, of course, restaurants are supposed to pay the difference if a worker's tips do not equal the minimum wage, but sadly, this usually doesn't happen.  Therefore, try to imagine raising a family on 2.13.  I would imagine it would have been hard to do back in 1991.  Now with the rising costs of food, rent, and gas I would expect it to be damn near impossible.  Fortunately, a lot of states have a higher sub-minimum wage than 2.13.  Illinois', for instance, is over $5.  Unfortunately, some states have actually seen new legislation to reduce their sub-minimum wage back to 2.13, the federal standard.  These workers spend all day preparing and serving food to others but cannot afford to prepare and serve food to their own families.  Crazy, crazy, crazy!