For years, Republicans have delayed a vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation that would strengthen penalties against employers who discriminate against women in pay and give women greater opportunity to find out whether they have been discriminated against. But on Thursday, House Democrats announced they were creating a “petition to discharge,” which, if it gets enough signatures, would force the bill out of committee and to a vote. On Thursday night, Minority Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) voiced her support for the move:

If Congress is serious in its efforts to strengthen the middle class, support our workforce, and secure equal rights for every American, we must allow a vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act [...]

Equal pay for equal work’ is not just a slogan; it is the foundation for the health, growth, and prosperity of our families and our economy. When a woman is paid fairly, our whole nation prospers. Let’s work together to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act now.

So far, only Democrats have signed the discharge petition — and it needs a total of 218 signatures, which means 17 Republicans must join in. Republicans blocked another procedural move to give the Act a vote Thursday. During a push by the Senate last year, the bill almost cleared the filibuster hurdle, but fell short.

With growing conversation around equal pay and women’s rights, it’s possible that the bill could gain support. Even Oprah Winfrey, the richest self-made woman in the United States, explained during a recent PBS interview that she was paid less than half of what her male coworker made in her first job:

On average in the United States, women earn 77 cents on a man’s dollar. Those lost wages aren’t just discriminatory; they hurt families and the economy alike. The average lost wages in a woman’s lifetime could feed a family of four for 37 years, and closing the wage gap would amount to huge economic stimulus.

Today is Equal Pay Day, the day of the year when the typical female worker finally catches up to the wages the average male worker made last year. Women make 77 cents for every dollar earned by men, and though that gap has shrunk since President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963, progress has stalled in recent years even among efforts to keep closing it.

Women across industries are paid less than men who do the same work, but in some industries, the gap is particularly large. As the chart from Sarah Jane Glynn at the Center for American Progress shows, women in financial industries, marketing, and education administration face pay gaps even larger than the national average. These are the 10 jobs with the biggest gender wage gaps:

As Glynn notes, women earn more than men in just seven of the 534 occupations listed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and those seven jobs account for just three percent of the female workforce. The gender wage gap costs the average woman more than $430,000 over her working career, enough money to feed a family of four for 37 years.

The persistence of the pay gap — at its current rate of closure, it won’t close fully for 45 years — has sparked calls for the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would strengthen anti-discrimination laws and levy heavy fines on employers who don’t pay women equal wages. The Act received a vote in the Senate last year but was filibustered by Republicans.

Today, April 9th, is ‘celebrated’ as Pay Equity Day as it marks the number of extra days into 2013 that the average woman must work in order to earn as much as the average man earned in 2012. Naysayers argue that women earn less than men because of the “choices” they make in their lives – choosing to work in less lucrative careers, to work less hours, and to take more time out of the paid labor force to stay home with children or care for elderly relatives. But there is a preponderance of evidence indicating that something more complicated is happening than just women voluntarily self-selecting into lower paying careers.

Women on average make only 77 cents to every dollar earned by men. Some of that wage gap is the result of women being more likely to work in certain industries or occupations, but about 40 percent of the difference in men’s and women’s wages cannot be explained by any measurable factor. And the wage gap is even higher for women of color, pointing to social factors that go far beyond the choices that women make.

The truth is, the choices women (and men) make do not occur in a vacuum. The fastest growing sectors of the economy are female dominated, but they are also jobs with low wages and large gender wage gaps. These are the occupations that are adding the most new jobs, so one can hardly blame women for taking them – especially as our economy continues to slowly recover. And while it is true that some women choose to take time out of the workforce to care for children or other relatives, the preexisting wage gap is often the reason they do so. In a married couple it often makes the most economic sense for the parent with the lower salary to be the one to take time off, and if a woman’s wages barely (or do not) cover the extremely high costs of childcare it make not make economic sense for her to keep working. But taking time away from work lowers wages in the long run and helps some employers justify discriminating against women workers in terms of pay and promotions, contributing to the vicious cycle that is the gender wage gap.

Unfortunately, regardless of what some would like the public to believe, the gender wage gap is real and has significant impacts on women’s lives in both the short and the long term. Even women who “do everything right” still feel the impact in the end. While the wage gap is not as large as it once was, progress has stalled in recent years. Legislation like the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would protect workers who discuss their salaries and impose greater sanctions against employers who discriminate, and policies to provide paid family and medical leave and expand access to preschool and childcare would go a long way to help rectify this inequity.

Our guest blogger is Sarah Jane Glynn, a senior policy analyst at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Four years ago today, President Obama signed his first bill into law: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, meant to address the pay gap between men and women. Ledbetter famously worked years without knowing that she was being paid less than her male co-workers for doing similar work. The Supreme Court threw out a case against her employer, saying that she had waited too long to challenge the pay disparity. The Ledbetter law is meant to ensure that women have ways to take action against pay discrimination.

But even with the passage of Ledbetter, the pay gap remains a stubbornly persistent problem. Here are some facts and figures to know:

– Women make just 77 cents for every $1 made by men. Over a woman’s career, that disparity leads to more than $430,000 in lost wages for an individual woman.

– The amount a woman loses to the pay gap could feed a family of four for 37 years. A woman could also use that money to buy seven degrees at a four-year public university or 14 new cars.

– The pay gap starts early. One year out of college, women make 82 cents for every dollar earned by their male peers for doing similar work.

– The wage gap grows over a woman’s career. For working women in their 20s, “the annual wage gap is $1,702. In the last five years before retirement, however, the annual wage gap jumps to $14,352.”

– A woman’s pay, on average, stops growing when she turns 39. For men, wage growth doesn’t stop until age 48.

– The pay gap plagues higher-paying jobs. Despite women earning more advanced degrees, the pay gap hasn’t closed for specialized professions. Female doctors earn $350,000 less than men over their careers. Female CEOs earn 69 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts, and female lawyers make tens of thousands of dollars less than their male peers.

President Obama mentioned the pay gap in his inauguration speech, saying, “Our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.” Last week, Rep. Rose DeLauro (D-CT) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) reintroduced the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would close loopholes in the 1960s-era Equal Pay Act.

Women now make up about one third of the doctors and lawyers in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reports. But for those female employees who expect equal representation in the near future, a discouraging statistic belies the good news: Lady lawyers and doctors still get paid less than their male counterparts for doing the same job.

Since 1970, women have grown from 9.7 percent of physicians to 32.4 percent in 2010. In law careers, women have gone from 4.9 percent to 33.4.

But wages have remained significantly lower for women than men, a problem that the Wall Street Journal asked male Harvard Economist Lawrence Katz to explain. Katz faulted a women’s “individual choices” as part of the reason for unequal pay, and said that “discrimination could also be a factor”:

Despite women’s greater presence in law and medicine, wage gaps between men and women persist in both fields. In 2007, the median income—the point at which half earn more and half earn less—of female lawyers was $90,000, compared with $122,000 for male lawyers, according to research by Harvard economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz. The median income of female physicians was $112,128, compared with $186,916 for male physicians. Those differences are largely explained by individual choices, including women taking off time to raise children or opting for less-demanding career tracks or positions that pay less, said Mr. Katz. But a small portion of the gap exists for unclear reasons, he said. Discrimination could also be a factor, though it isn’t clear how much, he said.

Nationally, the average woman makes 77 cents to the average man’s dollar. But the numbers here follow the wider trend that women in the highest-earning professions face the most pay disparity. In law, women are earning about 74 cents for every dollar a man earns. For physicians, that drops down to 60 cents on the dollar. It’s estimated that over their careers, female doctors lose an average of $350,000 to this wage gap.

Institutional sexism is hard to overcome, but there are proposed legislative steps that might ease the pay gap. The Paycheck Fairness Act, which is currently a victim of Congressional gridlock, would have created more pay transparency, protected those who sued for pay equity, and increased the penalties for employers who discriminate. Additionally, there are proposed laws — paid maternity and sick leave chief among them — that would make a woman’s “individual choice” to have a child not negatively impact her career.

Today, Republicans in the Senate blocked the Paycheck Fairness Act by filibustering the bill. The legislation would have strengthened protections for women who are being paid less because of their gender by creating larger penalties for employers who discriminate, creating more transparency of salaries so that women know whether they are being paid less, and protecting those who sue for pay equity.

Republicans framed the measure as a useless bureaucratic roadblock that would have hindered free enterprise and helped trial lawyers. Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) called the bill a “war on free enterprise.” But Heller’s record on women’s issues is far from stellar: He previously voted against Paycheck Fairness when he was in the House of Representatives and also voted against the Lily Ledbetter Fair pay act, another pay equity bill.

Pay discrimination isn’t some fantasy of the left — it actually prevents families from higher earnings. On average, women make 77 cents to a man’s dollar. And that’s happening while more women are becoming the primary breadwinners or dual-earners in their family and a larger number of women with high degrees entering the job market.

Over her lifetime, the average woman loses enough in wages to feed a family of four for 37 years.

The Paycheck Fairness Act has become an election issue, as well. Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-NV), who is challenging Heller, cited his opposition as a sign that he is one of the warriors in the ongoing battle to destroy women’s rights. In Missouri, the Senatorial candidates have also butted heads on Paycheck Fairness (all three Republican candidates opposed the bill). And in the Presidential election, President Obama has come out strongly in favor of the bill, while Mitt Romney has kept silent on the issue.

As the Senate prepares to consider the Paycheck Fairness Act, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) has strongly backed the important measure, which would expand protections for women who face gender discrimination in the workplace.

But the three top Republicans seeking to challenge her this November unanimously expressed opposition to the bill, the Kansas City Star reports, suggesting that efforts like this to reduce the significant wage gap between pay for men and women are not necessary:

• Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO): voted against the measure in the House in 2010 and, through a spokesman, called it “more government intrusion into the marketplace.”
• Former Missouri Treasurer Sarah Steelman (R): dismissed the need for any such legislation, calling the bill “political posturing intended to deflect attention from the horrific employment numbers and faltering economy.”
• Wealthy businessman John Brunner (R): said that the problem has already been solved by existing law, saying “I’ve been in the workplace for 30-plus years here, and the whole issue is there are systems in place for those issues of discrimination. I believe these issues are fully covered.”

With women still making just 77 cents for every dollar, the Paycheck Fairness Act would represent a much-needed step toward gender equity.