Equal Pay Day

Tuesday, April 22 is Equal Pay Day!

Equal Pay Day was originated by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) in 1996 as a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men's and women's wages. The day, observed on a Tuesday in April, symbolizes how far into the year a woman must work, on average, to earn as much as a man earned the previous year. (Tuesday is the day on which women's wages catch up to men's wages from the previous week.) Because women earn less, on average, than men, they must work longer for the same amount of pay. The wage gap is even greater for most women of color.

$$$
Equal Pay Day:
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
$$$


Wear RED on Equal Pay Day to symbolize how far women
and minorities are "in the red" with their pay!


The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held a hearing on January 24, 2008, “The Fair Pay Restoration Act: Ensuring Reasonable Rules in Pay Discrimination Cases.”

http://www.womenspolicy.org/thesource/article.cfm?ArticleID=2639

The Fair Pay Restoration Act (S.1843) – drafted in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, which held that employees must sue for pay discrimination within the current 180-day statute of limitations – would permit employees to sue employers for wage discrimination even if the discrimination was discovered beyond the 180-day limit. (This act is similar to the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act cited below.)

http://www.nwlc.org/fairpay/
Join the Fair Pay Campaign to support this legislation.
The Fair Pay Campaign is led by the American Association of University Women, the Feminist Majority Foundation, Legal Momentum, the National Organization for Women, the National Partnership for Women and Families, and the National Women's Law Center, with 250 other local, state, and national groups -- including NCPE -- joining them.


http://www.pay-equity.org/index.html

77 cents?

The Payoff Revisited

Some of you may remember my 26 April 2007 post about Oksana, my Ukrainian student who was chosen to study in the U.S. for a year. Well, here's an update.

Oksana has been at Spalding University in Louisville, KY since September. She has a few months to go in her study abroad experiences. She has taken really interesting classes, participated in college life as her Residence Hall's treasurer, and has volunteered in two local schools.

A few days ago Oksana came to visit me for her Spring Break. We toured around Monterey and San Francisco. Her friends in Louisville had warned her that CA was like another country. When she landed in the sunny 70 degree weather (on a day when 10 inches of snow fell in Louisville) and saw flowers blooming everywhere, she decided her friends were right.

We took Oksana hiking at Point Lobos and we took her to an International Women's Day event put on by the United Nations Association of Monterey. We wore our Ukrainian embroidered shirts and ate a variety of food from different cultures at the potluck.




While she was here, Oksana also tried Japanese food, Mexican food, and Indian food. Everything she tried, she liked.





We took her to the Monterey Aquarium where we saw some very playful sea otters, and some colorful jellyfish.


We went to a Russian friend's house to celebrate the end of Winter and the arrival of Spring. There, Oksana had the opportunity to talk to Russian speakers from many former Soviet Republic countries, and even another Ukrainian girl! We ate blinchiki (crepes) with different toppings and enjoyed the company.














Finally, we went to San Francisco and saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Union Square, Chinatown and the Ferry Building. Oksana had only seen the bridge in movies, and couldn't believe how huge it was in person. She also commented on how everyone in SF is so different from each other.


Oksana gave us a reason to play "tourist" and get out of the house and see the sights. While I greatly enjoyed our outings, what I will treasure most are our conversations. I was continually amazed at how much her English has improved and what a changed person she has become. She expresses her opinions thoughtfully, and is not afraid to disagree with people. She is questioning the world around her, and making insightful comparisons to life in Ukraine. She has worked so hard and deserves all of the successes that I know are headed her way.

Today Oksana is touring the Grand Canyon. When I visited her at her parents' house in their small Ukrainian village, she told me it was her dream to see the Grand Canyon. She didn't know why, but it's the place she always hoped she would be able to see. Today she will see it. Just another check mark on her long list of accomplishments...

What's next, Oksana?

we're back...

Some days it feels like riding a bike...

We're back in student mode, seemingly always rushing from one thing to the next, living by our day planners to keep things straight, and spending hours in front of our computers or buried in books. Our professors and colleagues welcomed us back, though it's a sea of unfamiliar faces in most of our classes.

Other days it's overwhelming...

Just the amount of stuff everywhere, in stores, people's houses, on the road. Cars are huge, and everywhere I turn there seem to be infinite choices to make. The work seems to have been removed from our lives in the name of modern convenience: washing machines, dish racks, high speed internet, and of course, my car. =)

Most days Larry and I walk everywhere and make a point to sit together and eat our meals. But we've noticed how easy it is to get caught up in whatever needs to happen next. Most days are easier than I expected them to be. I'm drowning in new concepts and tasks, but they're interesting and not at all beyond my grasp. It's just keeping up with the work load that consumes me.

And I feel fortunate every day that I wake up and see the sun shining, and I glance down the road a few blocks to the deep blue ocean, with my new appreciation for seasons and what they mean in other places to other people.