MEDIA RELEASE

An analysis released for Equal Pay Day – April 8 – shows just how much the gender-based wage gap is costing Hawaii women and their families.

Women who are employed full time in Hawaii are paid just 83 cents for every dollar paid to men, amounting to a yearly gap in wages of $7,708.

That means that Hawaii women lose a combined total of more than $1.5 billion every year – money that could strengthen the state economy and provide critical support to the nearly 57,000 Hawaii households headed by women.

The analysis was conducted by the National Partnership for Women & Families.

“Unfair wages cause real and lasting harm to women, the families they support, and to our economy. With women making up nearly half the workforce and serving as essential breadwinners in two-thirds of households, it’s time to finally put ‘Mad Men’-era wage policies in the past,” said Debra L. Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families. “As this analysis shows, when women and their families lose thousands of dollars in critical income each year, they have significantly less money to spend on food, gas, rent and other basic necessities, and the consequences for their families and our state and national economies can be devastating.”

According to the analysis, if the gap between men’s and women’s wages were eliminated, each full-time working woman in Hawaii could afford to pay for food for 1.1 more years, pay mortgage and utilities for three more months, pay rent for six more months, or buy 1,800+ more gallons of gas.

These basic necessities would be especially important for the 22 percent of Hawaii’s women-headed households currently living below the poverty level.

Nationally, women working full time, year round are paid 77 cents for every dollar paid to men. For women of color, the gap is larger. African American women are paid 64 cents and Latinas are paid 54 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men.

The country’s wage gap has been closing at a rate of less than half a cent per year since passage of the Equal Pay Act in 1963. At that rate, it is estimated that America’s women will not be paid equally for another 50 years.

The 10 states with the largest cents-on-the-dollar wage gaps in the country – from largest to smallest gap – are Wyoming, Louisiana, West Virginia, Utah, Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, North Dakota, Alaska and Idaho. Data on all 50 states and the District of Columbia can be found here.

“The wage gap is simply unacceptable. We must do much more to end discrimination so we no longer deny millions of women the fair pay they need and deserve,” Ness continued. “We know from Census data and the experiences of women across the country that the wage gap exists regardless of industry, education level or perceived personal choices. America’s women and their families urgently need Congress to take action to promote equal pay. It is past time to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.”

This week, the U.S. Senate is expected to consider the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act, help to break harmful patterns of pay discrimination, and establish stronger workplace protections for women.

President Obama has been a vocal supporter of the bill, calling on Congress to pass it in his State of the Union address in January and taking executive actions this week to combat pay discrimination.

In a 2014 nationwide survey, 62 percent of likely voters said they supported the Paycheck Fairness Act – 83 percent of Democrats, 58 percent of independents and 44 percent of Republicans.

The National Partnership’s analysis of the wage gap was released the day before Equal Pay Day, which is April 8 this year. The day marks how far into the year women must work in order to catch up with what men were paid the year before.

The analysis uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau and spans all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

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