BILL NUMBER: ACR 50CHAPTERED BILL TEXT RESOLUTION CHAPTER 133 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE AUGUST 11, 2015 ADOPTED IN SENATE JULY 16, 2015 ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 13, 2015 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 13, 2015 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Gonzalez (Coauthors: Assembly Members Achadjian, Alejo, Atkins, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chvez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gordon, Gray, Roger Hernndez, Holden, Irwin, Jones-Sawyer, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, O' Donnell, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, and Wood) MARCH 19, 2015 Relative to Equal Pay Day. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST ACR 50, Gonzalez. Equal Pay Day This measure would proclaim April 14, 2015, as Equal Pay Day in recognition of the need to eliminate the gender gap in earnings by women and to promote policies to ensure equal pay for all. WHEREAS, More than 50 years after the passage of the Equal Pay Act, women, especially minority women, continue to suffer the consequences of unequal pay; and WHEREAS, According to a report by the National Partnership for Women & Families, women in California earned a median of $0.84 for each dollar earned by men as of October 2014; and WHEREAS, As reported by the United States Census Bureau, women working full time, year round in 2013, typically earned 78 percent of what men earned, indicating little change or progress in pay equity; and WHEREAS, According to "Graduating to a Pay Gap," a 2012 research report by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), the gender pay gap is evident one year after college graduation, even after controlling for factors known to affect earnings, such as occupation, hours worked, and college major; and WHEREAS, In 2011, the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce found that college-educated women working full time earn $650,000 less than their male peers do over the course of a lifetime; and WHEREAS, In 2009, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed into law, which gives back to employees their day in court to challenge a pay gap, and now we must pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would amend the Equal Pay Act by closing loopholes and improving the law's effectiveness; and WHEREAS, Nearly four in 10 mothers are primary breadwinners in their households and nearly two-thirds are primary or significant earners, making pay equity critical to families' economic security; and WHEREAS, A lifetime of lower pay means women have less income to save for retirement and less income counted in a social security or pension benefit formula; and WHEREAS, Fair pay equity policies can be implemented simply and without undue costs or hardship in both the public and private sectors; and WHEREAS, Fair pay strengthens the security of families today and eases future retirement costs while enhancing the American economy; and WHEREAS, Tuesday, April 14, symbolizes the time in 2015 when the wages paid to American women catch up to the wages paid to men from the previous year; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature proclaims Tuesday, April 14, 2015, as Equal Pay Day in recognition of the need to eliminate the gender gap in earnings by women and to promote policies to ensure equal pay for all; and be it further Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.