4 things to know about Equal Pay Day
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Equal Pay Day is being held Tuesday to highlight wage discrimination against women. Activists are holding rallies around the country. Here's what you need to know:
1) Origins and timing
Equal Pay Day was created 21 years ago by the National Committee on Pay Equity. It is held in April to symbolize how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.
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2) Average pay
Women made about 80 cents for every dollar men earned in 2015, according to U.S. government data.
3) #20PercentCounts
Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook Inc. and founder of the non-profit Lean In, launched a new campaign Tuesday: #20PercentCounts, representing the 20 percent less that women make compared with men. Companies big and small are offering discounts, rebates or donating money to women's organizations.
4) Slow progress
Lean In says that at the current rate, it will take another 44 years for women to reach equal pay in the U.S.
And It will take even longer for women in other parts of the world: 47 years for women in Western Europe, 111 years for women in East Asia and the Pacific and 356 years for women in the Middle East and North Africa.
