It’s equal pay day, which means women in the United States have finally caught up with what their male counterparts earned last year. Yep, it’s 2017 and women in the United States still only earn 80 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts and the disparity is much greater for women of color. The wage gap means women can lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in earnings over the course of their careers, but new CAP analysis finds that it’s not only women who suffer, but the economies they work in do too. In fact, increasing earnings for women is more likely to lead to economic growth than cutting taxes for the wealthy.
Of course, American women aren’t the only women who face a gender wage gap. But as another new CAP analysis points out, while other developed nations are embracing policies to help close the gap like work-family supports, discrimination protections, gender-responsive budgeting, caregiver credits, and data collection, the U.S. is falling farther and farther behind. Another area where the U.S. is falling behind? Including women in the administration. Trump is appointing three men for every woman.
ACTION OF THE DAY
#ResistGorsuch. The Senate is gearing up to vote on Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch as soon as Thursday. So far, forty-one Democrats have promised to block his nomination, which means Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will have to blow up the Senate rules to force Gorsuch through. Join us, SEIU, and others in a national call in day today. Call your Senator at 1-855-713-0060 and tell them to change the nominee not the rules.
WHAT’S TRENDING
New connections. Not talking about LinkedIn. The web of connections between the Trump team and Russia gets more tangled by the day and yesterday was no exception. The Washington Post reported that Trump associate (and Betsy DeVos brother!) Erik Prince held a secret meeting with a Putin associate in order to establish a back-channel line of communication between Trump and Putin. And that’s not all. Also yesterday, Buzzfeed reported that Carter Page, a former Trump campaign adviser met with a Russian spy. These two stories add to the long list of reasons we need an independent investigation to get to the bottom of connections between Trump and Russia. Confused? Check out TheMoscowProject.org for a complete timeline of all things Trump/Russia.
Police Reform. Attorney General Jeff Sessions doesn’t like it. In fact, he has long opposed police reform efforts. And now he has ordered the Justice Department to review reform agreements with all police forces nationwide to “ensure that these pacts do not work against the Trump administration’s goals of promoting officer safety and morale.” This has many concerned that reform efforts at the beginning stages—in cities like Baltimore and Chicago—and those well under way may not last. If the goal is to “protect and serve” members of the public, Sessions must not reject the evidence in these legal documents that show current policies and practices in police departments must change.
Déjà Vu. Remember a couple weeks ago when Speaker Paul Ryan had to pull the vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act twice in two days because he didn’t have the votes to pass it? Well, not everyone seems to remember it. Now, Trump and the House Freedom Caucus are in talks about reviving efforts to repeal Obamacare. And they are considering a plan that would cut coverage for pre-existing conditions—something the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus supports but many moderate House members (and many Senate Republicans for that matter) would not likely get behind. More than 130 million Americans have a pre-existing condition—that’s an average of 305,747 per congressional district. You’ll be hearing more about this.
Fight for $15. Today is the 49th anniversary of MLK’s assassination and Fight for $15 advocates and the Movement for Black Lives are demonstrating nationwide in a “Fight Racism, Raise Pay,” protest.
UNDER THE RADAR
Donations. Yesterday, Trump pledged his first quarter salary of $78,333 to the National Park Service. That sounds nice enough, unless you remember the fact that Trump’s budget outline cuts the equivalent of 73 Grand Canyon National Parks from the Interior Department. (That’s a lot more than $78,000).
GOOD NEWS
Voting with your wallet. Companies can do it too. After news of yet another slew of sexual harassment cases at Fox News—this time concerning host Bill O’Reilly—Mercedez-Benz, Hyundai, and BMW have all decided to stop advertising during the show.