Equal Pay Day is still a necessary observation

Opinion 

Today is the day we recognize the continuing efforts of women to achieve full equality through the awareness of Equal Pay Day. The women’s equality movement has come a long way since the hard fought struggle to pass the 19th amendment back in 1919, but we still have a long way to go.

In 1996, The National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) established Equal Pay Day to increase public awareness on the pay gap between men and women. 19 years later, women on average still earn less than men and Equal Pay Day is still a necessary observation.

This summer, I became the father of a beautiful baby girl and it troubles me that she could one day be subject to lower wages because of her gender. In Virginia, women only earn 79 cents for every dollar that men make in similar jobs, working similar hours. For my daughter and other African American women, it’s closer to 64 cents and for Latina women it’s 54 cents to a man’s dollar. This amounts to a loss of millions in wages and the suffering of families, businesses and the economy – after all, nearly 400,000 households in Virginia are headed by women. These lost wages mean families have less money to spend on goods and services that help drive economic growth. This highlights a critical importance in my campaign, and why I launched Women for Futrell.

Women are the primary agents of change in our communities, forging ahead for a better future for our families. We need to challenge ourselves to do more to support policies that are not only good for Virginia, but also good for women. Polices that improve the economic landscape and open doors for all Virginians to pursue opportunities regardless of gender or what communities they come from.

I think we can all agree our daughters deserve the same opportunities as our sons. It’s up to each of us to work towards this vision of equality and elected officials like myself to actively fight for it.

We cannot all do well unless we “all” do well. Believe me when I say I am doing my part – for my daughter and yours. 

Let’s keep marching forward together.

Delegate Futrell represents Virginia’s 2nd House district, in Stafford and Woodbridge. He is currently running for the 29th Senate district. 

Editor’s note

Potomac Local was made aware that pieces of this submitted opinion were not correctly attributed to other sources.

In order to clarify these errors, we have spoken with Futrell and his team about the content, and have verified the sources.

The first line that needs attribution is, “The women’s equality movement has come a long way since the hard fought struggle to pass the 19th amendment back in 1919, but we still have a long way to go.”

Communications Director Symone Sanders stated, “[That] paragraph just has to be a coincidence. I have three different drafts of this op-ed, and I wrote that my own self.”

The second line that needs attribution is, “In 1996, The National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) established Equal Pay Day to increase public awareness on the pay gap between men and women. 19 years later, women on average still earn less than men and Equal Pay Day is still a necessary observation.”

Sanders stated that she took that definition from the website, and that it was a common practice to do so.

“That definition comes from the National Committee on Pay Equity – their website,” said Sanders.

Potomac Local confirmed that these two lines are also written in a Times Gazette article from April 2015.

The third line that needs attribution is, “Women are the primary agents of change in our communities, forging ahead for a better future for our families.”

Potomac Local confirmed that this line originally came from a campaign website for Chuck Hassebrook.

“I worked on the campaign [for] Hassebrook and I authored that myself. I did take that line. And I asked [Delegate] Futrell if he liked that line, and he wanted to use it, and he said ‘yes’ but I authored that blip on Women’s Equality Day,” said Sanders.