About Equal Pay Today

Equal Pay Today is a national campaign of Equal Rights Advocates that unites more than 50 national, regional, state, and tribal organizations to close the gender and racial wage gap. Launched in 2013 on the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act, the campaign works to end wage inequity based on gender, race, national origin, immigration status, caregiver status, LGBTQ status, and disability.

With a focus on underserved workers, Equal Pay Today has spent more than a decade building a wage justice movement through four strategies: movement building, policy advocacy, research, and strategic legal enforcement.

(Last updated Oct. 2026)

What is the gender wage gap?

The gender wage gap is the difference in median earnings between women and men. Women in the U.S. are paid 78 cents for every dollar paid to men across all earners, and 84 cents among full-time, year-round workers. [Add source and data year, with link.]

The gap is wider for women of color, mothers, immigrant women, LGBTQ workers, and women with disabilities. [Insert current figures for Black women, Latinas, Native women, and AANHPI women from the latest Equal Pay Day reports.]

Is the gender wage gap real?

Yes. The gap appears in nearly every occupation, state, and education level. Women with advanced degrees are paid less on average than men with only a bachelor’s degree. [Link EPI source.]

How Equal Pay Today Works

How does Equal Pay Today build the wage justice movement?

Equal Pay Today unites more than 50 national, regional, state, and tribal organizations to advance reforms at the local, state, and federal levels. The campaign marks [X] Equal Pay Days each year to show how pay inequity affects different communities. [See our members.] [Learn about Equal Pay Days.]

What policies does Equal Pay Today advocate for?

Since 2013, Equal Pay Today has supported successful pay equity legislation in 44 states and helped lead successful federal actions. Its policy agenda targets the core drivers of the gender and racial wage gaps: pay inequity and pay secrecy, caregiver bias, occupational segregation, poverty wages, and workplace discrimination. [See our Annual Policy Agenda.]

What research does Equal Pay Today publish?

Equal Pay Today works with leading researchers to release annual pay gap figures, set the dates for each Equal Pay Day, and spotlight data on the communities it serves. This research informs its policy and litigation work. [See our Equal Pay Day Reports and Wage Justice Agendas.]

How does Equal Pay Today enforce equal pay laws?

Equal Pay Today supports strategic litigation and enforcement. Its Litigators’ Network connects state and federal civil rights litigators to share knowledge, practical resources, and enforcement strategies.

Campaign Platform

What is the Equal Pay Today Campaign Platform?

The Campaign Platform sets out five concrete solutions to end the pay practices and legal loopholes that leave women and workers of color paid less than white men.

1. How does Equal Pay Today secure equal pay for equal work?

Women doing the same or substantially similar work are paid less than men in nearly every occupation, regardless of skill or education. One study of 265 major occupations found men’s median salary exceeded women’s in all but one.[1] Resume studies show women are offered fewer opportunities and lower pay than men with identical qualifications.[2] Women of color face even higher barriers where race and gender discrimination intersect.

Our solution: Enact and strengthen state and federal equal pay laws, ban employers from relying on salary history, prohibit retaliation against workers who discuss pay, and advance pay transparency.

2. How does Equal Pay Today address job segregation?

Gender and racial stereotypes have pushed women and workers of color into essential but undervalued industries such as child care, home health care, hospitality, and retail.[3] These jobs pay low wages,[4] are often part-time, and often lack paid time off, paid family leave, and health care.[5] Women remain underrepresented in higher-paying fields traditionally held by men, such as construction, firefighting, and policing.[7]

Our solution: Pass federal and state laws to address occupational segregation, raise wages in industries where women are overrepresented, and create pathways for women into higher-paying fields with benefits and union protections.

3. How does Equal Pay Today protect caregivers?

Women still carry a disproportionate share of caregiving, which fuels stereotypes that they are less committed or reliable at work.[9] As a result, women are paid less,[10] denied promotions, refused pregnancy and caregiving accommodations, or pushed out of work entirely.[11] These losses reduce women’s income across their working lives.[12]

Our solution: Win anti-discrimination protections for caregivers and the supports they need: affordable child care, paid family leave, paid time off, and flexible, predictable, stable schedules.

4. How does Equal Pay Today raise the wage floor and fight wage theft?

Women, particularly women of color and immigrant women, are overrepresented in low-wage and minimum wage jobs. Many face a lower tipped or subminimum wage, unstable hours, off-the-clock work, and unpaid overtime. In a survey of low-wage workers in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City, women were significantly more likely than men to experience minimum wage violations, and 47% of undocumented women reported wage violations.[13]

Our solution: Raise the minimum wage, eliminate the tipped minimum wage, and strengthen protections against all forms of wage theft.

5. How does Equal Pay Today strengthen protections against workplace discrimination?

Discrimination beyond pay also drives women’s financial insecurity. About 37% of women, more than one in three, report experiencing sexual harassment or abuse at work. [Link Tulane source.] Harassment pushes women out of jobs, limits advancement, and often leads to further discrimination and retaliation.

Our solution: Win broad protections against workplace discrimination, including sexual harassment, retaliation, and systemic discrimination, and ensure strong enforcement of existing laws.

Frequently Asked Questions

When was Equal Pay Today founded? Equal Pay Today launched in 2013, on the 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act of 1963.

Who runs Equal Pay Today? Equal Pay Today is a project of Equal Rights Advocates, a national gender justice legal organization founded in 1974 and based in San Francisco.

How many organizations are part of Equal Pay Today? More than 50 national, regional, state, and tribal organizations. [See our members.]

How many states have passed pay equity laws with Equal Pay Today’s support? Equal Pay Today has supported successful pay equity legislation in 44 states.

What are Equal Pay Days? Equal Pay Days mark how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned the year before. Equal Pay Today observes [X] Equal Pay Days annually, including days for Black women, Latinas, Native women, AANHPI women, and mothers. [Link to Equal Pay Days calendar.]