Delaware House and Senate leaders hold an Equal Pay Day of Action day to show support for equal pay for women.
Women make up 39% of Delaware’s General Assembly – and they gathered Tuesday to celebrate legislation already passed, and recognize what work is still left to do.
“These issues are persistent in our society and in our state," says House Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst. "But I am proud that this General Assembly has taken action to remove some of those roadblocks from prohibiting employers from asking prospective employees about their wage history, to passing the landmark Equal Rights Amendment.”
House Majority Whip Melissa Minor Brown says white women earn only 82 cents for every dollar that a white man makes, and the gap is even wider for women of color.
“But we need to do more than just talk about it," she says. "We need to take action, we need to do something about it, to make sure that our daughters and granddaughters don’t face the same issues that we do.
According to a report from the National Women’s Law Center, women have lost more than 5.4 million jobs since the start of the pandemic, and women’s participation in the workforce is at the lowest it's been in decades.
Women are disproportionately driven out of the workforce for caregiving, and more women of color work in the caregiving sector, which was the first to have hours reduced or cut during the pandemic.
Senate Majority Whip Elizabeth Lockman says many women have been brought up to believe they must make those sacrifices.
“Because motherhood was my priority at the time, I needed flexibility, and I think I assumed, that was only 19 years ago, that I had to pay for it," Lockman says. "Pay for it with a lower salary which would compound over time in the coming years, artificially holding myself back from raises or even more onerous job opportunities because I believed I had to make that trade-off.”
Director of the Delaware Office of Women's Advancement and Advocacy Melanie Ross Levin, says this is why the state needs a women’s office. She calls it a necessity until all women can take care of their families without risking their financial wellbeing, have a chance of a healthy pregnancy and birth, and no longer face violence at home just for being a woman.