美国同工同酬日关注男女工资差异

AS IT IS 2016-04-13 #EqualPayDay Brings Attention to Wage Differences 美国同工同酬日关注男女工资差异

This is What’s Trending Today…

Tuesday was National Equal Pay Day in the United States. 

The day is designed to bring attention to wage differences between American men and women. The U.S. Census¹ Bureau reported that in 2014, women were paid 79 cents for every one dollar that men earned.

Equal Pay Day marks how far into the calendar year women must work to earn the pay that men earned last year.

The Census Bureau reported that the average salary for an American woman with a full-time² job is $39,621. In comparison, the average salary for a man who works full-time is $50,383.

On social media, the hashtag #EqualPayDay trended worldwide.

President Barack Obama gave an Equal Pay Day speech on Tuesday. He said that, “the pay gap between men and women offends our values as Americans.”

Obama also noted³ the pay differences in the world of professional soccer.

The difference in pay was sizeable. Each player on the Men’s National Team earns $263,320 a year if the team wins 20 “friendly” matches. Each player on the Women’s National Team earns $99,000 a year if the team wins those 20 matches.

The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team has won three World Cup championships. The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team has never won a World Cup title.

One Twitter user joked, “I don't support equal pay in US Soccer. Our women's team won the World Cup three times, so they should be getting *lots* more than the men.”

Naturally, some jobs require equal pay for men and women. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton posted a video on Twitter Tuesday of a young girl asking her, “Do you think when you’re president you’ll be paid as much as if it were a man?”

Clinton’s answer? “This is one of the jobs where they have to pay you the same. But there are so many examples where that doesn’t happen.”

Words in This Story

salary - n. an amount of money that an employee is paid each year

offend- v. (formal) to be against what people believe is acceptable or proper

1 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

2 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

3 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。