President Obama on Tuesday called on Congress and the business community to provide equal pay to women and to make it easier on mothers and fathers in the workplace.
“Today, women make up about half our workforce. But they still make 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. That is wrong, and in 2014, it’s an embarrassment,” he said in his State of the Union Address. “A woman deserves equal pay for equal work.”
Obama said it’s time to end “workplace policies that belong in a ‘Mad Men’ episode.”
“[A woman] deserves to have a baby without sacrificing her job. A mother deserves a day off to care for a sick child or sick parent without running into hardship – and you know what, a father does, too,” he said.
Obama’s call for equality for women in the work force comes after former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) said that the government should not help women who cannot control their “libido” at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting and House Republicans were given advice on running against female candidates.
