![]() ![]() Nearly 500,000 children under twelve must take care of themselves while their mothers work. At present, the total facilities of all licensed day-care centers in the nation can take care of only 185,000 children. “It is for these reasons that I believe we must expand day-care centers and provide other assistance which I have recommended to Congress. Where the mother is the sole support of her family, she must often face the hard choice of either accepting public assistance or taking a position at a pay rate which averages less than two-thirds the pay rate for men. I believe they bear the heaviest burden of any group in our nation. ![]() Among the remainder, about fifty per cent have husbands who earn less than $5,000 a year – many of them much less. Two out of five have children of school age. Today, one out of five of these working mothers has children under three. “The lower the family income, the higher the probability that the mother must work. ![]() One of the prime objectives of the Commission on the Status of Women, which I appointed 18 months ago, is to develop a program to accomplish these purposes. “It is extremely important that adequate provision be made for reasonable levels of income to them, for the care of the children which they must leave at home or in school, and for protection of the family unit. Today, there are almost 25 million women employed, and their number is rising faster than the number of men in the labor force. “Our economy today depends upon women in the labor force. “While much remains to be done to achieve full equality of economic opportunity – for the average woman worker earns only 60 per cent of the average wage for men – this legislation is a significant step forward. It will add protection at the working place to the women, the same rights at the working place in a sense that they have enjoyed at the polling place. This measure adds to our laws another structure basic to democracy. This act represents many years of effort by labor, management, and several private organizations unassociated with labor or management, to call attention to the unconscionable practice of paying female employees less wages than male employees for the same job. “I am delighted today to approve the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which prohibits arbitrary discrimination against women in the payment of wages. President Kennedy told those who were invited to the White House to witness the signing of the bill: But today’s victory is a major advance toward workplace equality for women. ![]() Since the Fair Labor Standards Act and Equal Pay Act do not cover all workers, and the law does not deal with equal pay for “comparable work,” and does not ban any form of gender bias by an employer except in regard to salary, the battle for total equality and equal opportunity in the workplace is not yet over. In one recent survey of employers, about a third admitted they had separate pay scales for male and female office workers. Twenty-two States already have equal pay laws on their books, but discrimination is still widespread. To establish that an employer has violated the law, it must be shown that different wages are being paid to men and women, that the employees are doing substantially equal work on jobs requiring the same skill, effort and responsibility, and the jobs are performed under similar working conditions. The new law will take effect next year, be enforced by the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, and apply to workers presently covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. He called the practice of paying women less than men for the same work “unconscionable,” and promised to lobby for other reforms to help women who work outside the home. Nineteen ceremonial pens were used, which he gave to those who had worked hardest for the bill’s passage. ![]()
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