Oscar-award-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence has been making headlines lately, but not because she’s promoting an upcoming film. Lawrence recently penned an honest, frank letter on her personal experience with the wage gap in Hollywood. Her realization that she has been paid significantly less than her male peers despite performing the exact same work is a story that working women everywhere can relate to. Unfortunately, even in 2015 when women make up nearly half of the workforce, too many don’t earn equal pay for equal work.
Wage inequality impacts our entire economy, not just women who are systemically shortchanged on the job. Jennifer Lawrence is a union member and is lucky enough to be protected by a union contract. But not all working women are so fortunate. Whether you are a famous actress in Hollywood or a teacher in a small town, receiving less pay than a male co-worker simply because of gender is never right. By joining together and negotiating for higher wages, working women can begin to conquer the pay gap. Read more on the AFL-CIO’s blog at aflcio.org For the latest local labor event listings, go to dclabor.org and click on Calendar. Here’s today’s labor history: On this date in 1879, union organizer and anarchist Luisa Capetillo was born in Puerto Rico. She organized tobacco and other agricultural workers in Puerto Rico and later in New York and Florida. In 1916 she led a successful sugar cane strike of more than 40,000 workers on the island. She demanded that her union endorse voting rights for women. In 1919, three years before her death, she was arrested for wearing pants in public, the first woman in Puerto Rico to do so. The charges were dropped. In 1965, the Gateway Arch, a 630-foot high inverted centenary arch of stainless steel marking the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the waterfront of St. Louis, Missouri, was completed after two and one-half years. Although it was predicted 13 lives would be lost in construction, not a single worker died. Today’s labor quote is by Harry S. Truman, who said: “It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours." The 33rd President of the United States, Harry Truman was born and died in Missouri.
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