Lawyers Club of San Diego, the 1000-plus member local bar association with the mission “to
advance the status of women in the law and society,” will mark the 17th national observation of
Equal Pay Day – the date to which women must work to earn what men earned the previous year
– with a luncheon April 9 addressing gender pay inequity.
Lorena Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer/CEO of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council,
AFL-CIO, will speak at the luncheon, discussing the significant and crippling impact of unequal
pay upon women, their families, society and the nation.
According to latest U.S. Census statistics, on average, full-time workingwomen earn 77 cents to
every dollar earned by men. This pay inequity amounts to a significant monetary loss throughout
a woman’s work life. According to the WAGE Project, a woman who earns a degree in business,
medicine, or law will make $2 million less than her male counterpart over the course of her
career. A college graduate will make $1.2 million less and a high school graduate, $700,000 less.
The impact of such inequity on the quality of life for women and their families on a day-to-day
basis is tangible. It translates into groceries, gasoline, rent, and health care costs. On a long-term
basis it severely undermines a woman’s ability to adequately plan for retirement.
“Women are breadwinners in a growing number of families, and women’s earnings play an
increasingly important role in families’ incomes,” President Barack Obama stated in the 2012
presidential proclamation of National Equal Pay Day. “For them, fair pay is even more than a
basic right – it is an economic necessity. … I call upon all Americans to recognize the full value
of women’s skills and their significant contributions to the labor force, acknowledge the injustice
of wage discrimination, and join efforts to achieve equal pay.”
Lawyers Club is committed to raising awareness about gender wage inequality and discussing
how to close the significant wage gap. The Equal Pay Day luncheon is set for 12 p.m. at the
Westgate Hotel, 1055 Second Ave. downtown and is open to the public. The luncheon costs $25
for members of Lawyers Club and co-hosting organizations, and $40 for non-members. Register
at www.lawyersclubsandiego.com.
This event is presented by Lawyers Club’s Equality & Action and Professional Advancement
Committees, and co-hosted by the American Association of University Women, Association for
Women in Science, California Diversity Council, Girls on the Run San Diego, Hera Hub, League
of Women Voters, MBA Women International-San Diego, National LBWA San Diego, North
County African-American Women’s Association, North County Women in Networking, Rancho
Santa Fe Business and Professional Women’s Association, Run Women Run, San Diego County
Commission on the Status of Women, the San Diego LGBT Community Center, UC San Diego
Women’s Center, Voices of Women, Women Evolution, Women Give San Diego, Women in
Technology International, Women’s Museum of California, Women’s Networking Group of
Chula Vista, and YWCA of San Diego County.
To learn more, visit the National Committee on Pay Equity website at http://www.pay-equity.org.
For more information about this event and Lawyers Club, please contact local attorneys and
committee co-chairs Shalini K. Kedia at (858) 431-9915, [email protected], and
Maggie E. Schroedter at (619) 595-1551, [email protected].
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