Iowa marks Equal Pay Day

Women’s rights groups consider this “Equal Pay Day” — the day at which women, on average, will make the same amount of money over the past 16 months that men made just during the 12 months of 1999. Charlotte Nelson is executive director of the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women. She says the wage gap is due to the fall in men’s wages as opposed to an increase in women’s salaries. Nelson says women, on average, make 73 cents for every dollar a man earns. She says that number has fallen in recent years. While the national numbers show women only earning 73 cents to every dollar earned by a man, a state survey done in 1993 found Iowa women earned 68 cents to every man’s dollar. Nelson says the results of a new Iowa survey will be released later today.