BusinessReport.com

April really is the cruelest month.

Tax Day looms. There’s also Tax Freedom Day on April 23, when the average worker crosses into territory where he can theoretically keep what he’s earned rather than forking it over to Uncle Sam.

The month also features Equal Pay Day on April 22, which marks how far into the current year a woman in the United States must work for her earnings to catch up to a man’s from the previous year. In other words, a woman has to toil away for nearly 16 months to equal what a man can earn in 12, says the National Committee on Pay Equity [NCPE], the event’s longtime organizer.

Since it launched Equal Pay Day in 1996, NCPE encourages women nationwide to use the occasion to rally legislators, write letters to the editor and wear red symbolizing how far “in the red” women are. Never mind the color is also the signature hue of women and heart disease.

The NCPE says that for every dollar a man earns, a woman pulls down 77 cents. In Louisiana it’s 68 cents, and even lower for African-Americans and Hispanics.

If you’ve not heard of Equal Pay Day, or consider this sort of activism the passé handiwork of bra-burners, you’re not alone. For a number of reasons, pay equity has become an under-the-rug issue whose legislative manifestations have had a hard time sticking.

Opponents claim the Equal Pay Act of 1963 is an adequate antidote to discrimination. Proponents say if that were true, then the average college- educated, full-time working woman wouldn’t enter retirement with $1.2 million less than a male counterpart.

It’s important to acknowledge that the 77 cents on the dollar shortfall statistic stems from a number of factors, including not just pay inequity for the same jobs, but also women choosing part-time work and taking time off to care for families.

Opting out by choice is one thing. But if a woman is paid less than a male counterpart for the same job even once in her career, the disparity has a compounding effect that reemerges in every subsequent salary negotiation. It also shows up with a vengeance in retirement, where women and their spouses both lose.

On the federal level, the Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act have been introduced several times in Congress over the last decade. Neither has yet to pass. With federal attempts inconclusive, about 30 states enacted their own legislation to give teeth to existing laws.

In Louisiana, women’s advocates attempted during three previous legislative sessions [2005-07] to pass the Louisiana Equal Pay Act for Women, which would mandate equal pay for equal work. But the state’s first female governor didn’t offer overt support, and only a portion of the Legislative Women’s Caucus jumped on the bandwagon—and only last year.

Still, the 2007 session looked promising. The year before, the bill was defeated on the House floor 54-40. Twelve months later, advocates had picked up 20 more votes and a handful of new co-sponsors. H.B.158 successfully navigated the labor committee and went to the House floor once again. Supporters held their breath, and were shocked when the bill lost by three votes.

“What makes this defeat all the more devastating is the fact that there were 10 absent Reps.; seven of which were co-sponsors of the bill,” wrote Camille Moran, a member of the Louisiana Federation of Business and Professional Women, in an e-mail to supporters. “Therefore, if all of the co-sponsors had been present as they should have been to vote yes, the bill would have passed.”

The bill’s sponsor, Democrat Willie Hunter of Monroe, was term-limited and lost a bid last year for the State Senate. Moran says her team will sit this session out to regroup and get to know new legislators. They plan to try again in the future.

The public sector will likely continue to wring its hands about pay equity, leaving the real lesson of Equal Pay Day for employers, who should establish equivalent pay scales, and working women, long criticized for not fighting for higher starting salaries and raises.

Women need to negotiate for every dollar. If they give up a few thousand now, it will come back to haunt them—with interest.