周二，美国总统乔·拜登(Joe Biden)在白宫举办了一场活动，纪念同酬日，并借此宣传自己政府中的女性人数以及他任命的重要职位的历史创造者。

众议院议长南希·佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)被拜登称为“我们历史上最伟大的演讲者”，众议院民主党妇女核心小组也于周二早些时候聚集在一起，强调性别薪酬差距。

“他们称之为同工同酬日，但我喜欢称之为‘不平等薪酬日’，因为这是我们今天传达的信息，”加州民主党众议员杰姬·斯皮尔说。

这一天以前被称为全国薪酬不平等意识日，每年都有变动，1996年由全国薪酬平等委员会首次认可。这是女性平均全职工资从上一年开始赶上男性的日期。今年，它正好落在妇女历史月的中间。

“我不能接受看到我的姐妹们在工作场所，而且工资更低，”众议院民主党妇女核心小组联合主席、密歇根州众议员布伦达·劳伦斯说。“所以我想让你知道，我每年都会谈论这个问题，但希望明年——我保持希望——明年，我们会说我们终于做对了。”

劳伦斯补充说:“我将以一句话结束我的演讲，我知道我的演讲者将再次说，但当妇女成功时，美国也成功了。”

目前，女性的平均收入是男性的83 %,但这一数字因种族而异。

斯皮尔指出，“非洲裔美国女性的收入是1美元的58%，拉丁裔女性是1美元的49%。”

拜登在一份承认这一天的声明中写道:“薪酬差距反映了女性在获得高薪工作和履行护理责任方面面临的公然歧视和障碍，包括缺乏负担得起的儿童保育、带薪家庭和医疗假以及公平和可预测的日程安排，这些往往阻止女性加入和留在劳动力队伍中。”

根据拜登政府周二发布的一份情况说明书，人事管理办公室(Office of Personnel Management)还将提出一项规定，以“解决在联邦雇员的招聘和薪酬设定过程中使用先前薪资历史的问题”。

在周二晚上与拜登夫妇一起参加活动之前，副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯在同工同酬日峰会上发表了讲话。

她说:“我们的经济没有为我们国家的妇女发挥应有的作用。”。

哈里斯说:“如果我们要继续发展我们的经济，保持竞争力，并在21世纪领导世界，我们就不能让一半的劳动力掉队。”。“为了建立一个为我们所有人服务的经济，我们必须建立一个为妇女服务的经济。这是我们政府的中心任务之一。”

德鲁·安格雷尔/盖蒂图片社

众议院议长南希·佩洛西在庆祝同酬日的活动后问候客人...

除了峰会之外，哈里斯还会见了美国女子足球队的现任和前任成员，讨论同酬问题，此前他们与美国足球队就同酬问题达成了和解。

哈里斯赞扬了这些女性在这一领域的工作，也赞扬了她们提高了为同工同酬而斗争的意识。

“显然，你们都是女足技术和统治力方面的冠军。但我们今天来到这里，是因为你们也是影响大多数女性和影响大多数女性劳动力的问题上的领导者，这就是薪酬平等问题，”哈里斯说。

哈里斯和球员们谈到了他们的战斗，以及他们战斗的目的不仅仅是补偿，还包括比赛场地、按摩师，甚至是训练后简单的百吉饼。

据副总统办公室称，尽管副总统周二对新冠肺炎的检测呈阴性，但在她的丈夫道格·艾姆霍夫(Doug Emhoff)的检测呈阳性后，“出于充分的谨慎”，她没有参加晚上的同酬日活动。

劳工部妇女局的高级顾问莎拉·简·格林说，工资差距是一个直接问题，会导致女性口袋里的钱减少，但它也有累积效应。

她指出，女性不太可能有退休储蓄，更有可能完全依赖社会保障，最终在晚年生活贫困。

劳工部妇女局周二发布了一份题为“承担成本:在疫情期间，被低估的工作岗位的过度代表性如何使妇女处于不利地位”的报告，讨论了新冠肺炎对妇女在劳动力中的地位的影响。

“女性所在的行业失业率最高，”格林说。“所以这是我们看到女性失业率高得多，以及女性在2020年经历了大部分失业的很大一部分原因。”

在上午的新闻发布会上，斯皮尔提出了通过薪资公平法案的必要性，该法案旨在解决基于性别的工资不平等问题。该法案在众议院获得通过，但在参议院被搁置。

发言人表示希望同工同酬的斗争将很快成为过去。

劳伦斯说:“作为这个国家的女性，我们知道我们为我们的经济、我们的社区、这个国家的整体安全增加了价值。”。“我们要求得到尊重和重视，并向我们支付同等的工资。”

Democrats push to close gender gap on Equal Pay Day

President Joe Biden marked Equal Pay Day with an event at the White House on Tuesday, using it to tout the number of women in his own administration and the history makers he has tapped to fill prominent posts.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who Biden called on of the "greatest speakers of our history," and the House Democratic Women's Caucus also gathered earlier Tuesday to highlight the gender pay gap.

"They call this Equal Pay Day, but I like to call it 'Unequal Pay Day' because that's the message that we are conveying today," said Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif.

Formerly known as National Pay Inequity Awareness Day, the day -- which fluctuates year to year -- was first recognized in 1996 by the National Committee on Pay Equity. It is the date by which women's average full-time wages catch up to men's from the previous year. This year, it falls right in the middle of Women's History Month.

"It's not acceptable for me to see my sisters in the workplace, and getting paid less," said House Democratic Women's Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Mich. "So I want you to know, I will talk about this every year, but hopefully next year -- I keep hope alive -- next year, we'll be saying we finally got it right."

"And I will end with a statement that I know my speaker is going to say again, but when women succeed, America succeeds," Lawrence added.

Women on average currently make 83 cents for every dollar earned by men -- but that figure differs based on race.

Speier noted that "African American women are making 58 cents on the dollar and Latina women are making 49 cents on the dollar."

"The pay gap reflects outright discrimination as well as barriers that women face in accessing good-paying jobs and meeting caregiving responsibilities -- including a lack of affordable child care, paid family and medical leave and fair and predictable scheduling -- which often prevent women from joining and staying in the workforce," Biden wrote in a proclamation recognizing the day.

The Office of Personnel Management will also propose a regulation to "address the use of prior salary history in the hiring and pay-setting process for Federal employees," according to a fact sheet released Tuesday by the Biden administration.

Ahead of an event Tuesday evening with the Bidens, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the White House at the Equal Pay Day Summit.

"Our economy just has not been working as it should for the women of our nation," she said.

"If we are going to continue to grow our economy and to be competitive and lead the world in the 21st century, we simply cannot afford to leave half of our workforce behind," Harris said. "To build an economy that works for all of us, we must build an economy that works for women. That is one of our administration's central missions."

In addition to the summit, Harris met with current and former members of the U.S. Women's Soccer team to talk about equal pay,after they settled their equal pay lawsuit with U.S. Soccer.

Harris praised the women for their work on the field and also for raising awareness of the fight for equal pay.

"Obviously, you all have been champions in terms of your skills and your dominance in terms of women's soccer. But we are here today because you also have been leaders on an issue that affects most women and has affected most women in the workforce and it's the issue of pay equity," Harris said.

Harris and the players spoke about their fight, and the things they fought for beyond just compensation including playing surfaces, massage therapists and even things as simple as bagels after practice.

While the vice president tested negative for COVID-19 on Tuesday, she did not attend the evening Equal Pay Day event "out of an abundance of caution" after her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, tested positive, according to the vice president's office.

The wage gap is an immediate problem that leads to less money in women's pockets but that it also has cumulative effects, according to Sarah Jane Glynn, a senior adviser with the Department of Labor's Women's Bureau.

She noted that women are less likely to have retirement savings and more likely to solely rely on Social Security and end up living in poverty in their old age.

The Department of Labor's Women's Bureau released a report Tuesday titled, "Bearing the Cost: How Overrepresentation in Undervalued Jobs Disadvantaged Women During the Pandemic," which discusses the impacts of COVID-19 on women's place in the workforce.

"The industries that women were in had the most significant job losses," Glynn said. "So that's a big part of the reason why we saw much higher unemployment numbers for women and why women experienced the majority of job losses during 2020."

During the morning press conference, Speier brought up the need to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which addresses wage inequity based on gender. The bill passed in the House but has stalled in the Senate.

And the speakers expressed hope that the fight for equal pay will soon be a thing of the past.

"We, as women in this country, we know we add value to our economy, to our communities, to the overall safety of this country," Lawrence said. "And we demand the respect and to be valued by paying us a wage that is equal."