According to laws already on the books both in New York State and the United States, Equal Pay Day for all women should be December 31. But it’s not. The average woman must work far into the next year to earn what the average man earned the previous year.

Every class and race of American woman suffers from the pay gap. It takes until April 2nd for women who work full-time to catch up with their male counterparts; mom’s equal pay compared to dad’s happens on June 10; black women reach parity on August 22; and equal pay day for Latinas is observed on Nov. 20. There are wide wage gaps among Asian women, so some catch up by March 5 but others not until mid-July.

In St. Lawrence County, 35% of children live in single parent households. The majority of these household are headed by women, who are already struggling to make ends meet because of under-employment, low-wage jobs, the gender wage gap, lack of affordable childcare and other barriers to economic success which are far beyond their individual control.

The gender pay gap not only hurts women and their families, but it also hurts the communities they support. That means local businesses are hurt through lost sales, as are local schools and governments that depend upon sales tax and property tax dollars to fund the programs and the infrastructure those communities need to exist.

Collectively, women in New York State lose $17 billion dollars a year due to the pay gap. Those missing wages would close a lot of budget gaps at every level and make a real difference to women, their families, and the communities they live in.

Donna Seymour

Potsdam