Equal pay is prominent issue at the heart of economic inequality for working women and their families. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 made it illegal for employers to differentiate pay based on gender. Similarly, the Supreme Court's 1974 ruling in Corning Glass Works v. Brennan, affirmed this illegality. Unfortunately, equal pay has still not been fully enforced. An unrelenting wage gap continues to exist between women and men. While the gap has narrowed since 1963, the most recent data shows that, on average, women earn just 77 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2002. The wage gap affects working women at every income level in the labor force, and expands to become a gap for working mothers who are further reprimanded for their time out of the workforce to have children and their desire for more flexible hours. Although women have entered the workforce in great numbers, the setup and schedules of labor are still only designed for men. Statistics show that a first child lowers earnings for a mother by 7.5 percent, while a second child lowers her earnings by another 8 percent.

A prominent solution to closing the wage gap is to strengthen the enforcement of the Equal Pay Act. One such legislative effort, the Paycheck Fairness Act, seeks to do so by closing loopholes in the existing law that weaken its effectiveness as a tool for ending wage discrimination. We must also expand unionization of the workforce. It is shown that women who have union representation earn 33 percent more than women who are not union members. Proposals such as the Employee Right to Choose Act would protect the rights of workers to organize and further the cause of equal pay. What we need is a renewed focus on achieving economic equality. This topic is relevant because it is considered illegal and yet thrives in society even today. We consider our modern day society to be one of liberty and equality and yet half of our nation is suffering in the workface due to discrimination. This is a problem that must be acknowledged and addressed right away.