Gender gap in average wages is $17,600 (from the Sarasota FL Herald-Tribune), but at Wimbledon, it’s $70,000!!! it’s inconceivable to me that Wimbledon decided, consciously, just recently to maintain a winner’s pay disparity between men and women champions. I wonder what message England is trying to send with that announcement…

Today is Equal Pay Day. To match men’s earnings for 2005, women would have had to work from January 2005 to April 2006, an extra four months. Equal Pay Day takes place each year on a Tuesday in April, symbolizing the point to which a woman must work to achieve pay equity. Her male counterpart must work five days a week for 12 months, whereas she will work seven days a week for 16 months to earn equivalent wages.

While educational gains for women are often credited with helping to shrink the gender gap in earnings, research conducted by the American Association of University Women’s Educational Foundation reveals that women with four-year degrees typically earn 71.5 cents for every $1 that their male counterparts earn, or $44,200 compared with $61,800 for men — a gap of $17,600 a year!

We need to urge the members of our state’s congressional delegation to close the gender wage gap by supporting legislation such as the Paycheck Fairness Act (S.B. 74/H.R. 2397) and the Fair Pay Act (S.B. 841/ H.R. 1697).

Vicki Waters

Beverly Zimmer

Waters is Manatee County branch president of the American Association of University Women and resides in Bradenton. Zimmer is Sarasota County AAUW branch president and resides in Sarasota.