Support Wage Equality

Floor Speech

Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise to address wage equality in our Nation, or the lack thereof.

I was raised by a mother, a schoolteacher. She worked hard. She worked harder than any male that I know of on her job, and then when she came home, she worked hard in the home, harder than any male that I've ever known. And she turned me over to my wife.

My wife works harder than I ever thought about working, both outside the home and in the home. So I believe that it is definitely a great tragedy that either one of those women would make less than a man doing the same thing on the job. I think it's terrible.

Seventy-seven cents for every dollar earned by a man is what women make in my home State of Georgia. I'm particularly alarmed by the wage gap for minority women, who often earn less than 64 cents for every dollar earned by a non-minority man.

Without equal pay, women working twice as hard only go half as far. We must continue to strive for income equality and support women in the workplace.

Source