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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Equal Pay Bill Introduced to Battle Wage Discrimination

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Thursday, January 31, 2019   

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The issue of equal pay for equal work is front and center in Congress this week as House Democrats reintroduced the Paycheck Fairness Act.

It comes 10 years after President Barack Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which modernized and improved on the Equal Pay Act of 1963.

Nancy Mahr, public policy director for the American Association of University Women in California, notes that it would prohibit employers from low-balling the salaries of job applicants based on what they made at their last job, which would ultimately improve wages for women.

"A woman is given a salary based on the salary she earned previously, regardless of her merit or of the current pay scale within a given organization," Mahr points out.

The act would also protect against retaliation for discussing pay with colleagues. And it would also require the federal government to collect and publicize wage data.

Right now, white women working full time are paid, on average, 80 cents for every dollar paid to a man.

Mahr says women of color have it even worse, with black women making only 58 cents and Latina women 53 cents to a man's dollar.

"Latinos are suffering the most with this,” she points out. “We hope that this will give a little bit more incentive for women to feel safer speaking up for their rights, in terms of equal pay."

According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, 2.5 million children would be lifted out of poverty, and the poverty rate for working single mothers would be cut in half, if the gender pay gap was closed.

At the current rate, it's expected to take another 40 years for women to achieve pay equity.


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Health and Wellness

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Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


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Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

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Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


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Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

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New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

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Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

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Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

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