Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander helped introduce the Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation that would combat wage discrimination and help close the wage gap by strengthening the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and ensuring women can challenge pay discrimination and hold employers accountable. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) is the sponsor of this legislation.
Tuesday, March 25, 2025, was Equal Pay Day, the day that women’s pay catches up with what men made the previous year. Nationally, women make 83 cents for every dollar men make, down from last year when Equal Pay Day was March 12.
“Equal pay is about more than just equal pay for equal work – it’s about equal opportunity,” said Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander. “Today, I helped introduce the Paycheck Fairness Act to finally close the pay and opportunity gap for women across New Hampshire. I will never stop fighting to ensure everyone has the chance to thrive.”
Facts about pay disparity from the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute:
- In New Hampshire, women working full-time, year-round earned 76 percent of what men earned in 2023.
- The labor force participation rate among Granite State women ages 25-54 (83.3 percent) was around 7.8 percentage points lower than the rate for men of the same age (91.1 percent).
- According to data from the first quarter of 2024, women represented an estimated 90.8 percent of workers in New Hampshire’s childcare sector and approximately 86.4 percent of the state’s home health services workforce.
- According to the most recent data available, women in caregiving occupations are commonly paid wages far below the state’s median hourly wage, which was $24.03 in 2023
- According to averaged data collected from January to September 2024, approximately 6.0 percent of Granite Staters (22,300 people) reported that they were not engaged in the state’s labor force because they were caring for children or an older adult.
Background on the Paycheck Fairness Act:
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 made it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women who perform substantially equal work. Along with other key civil rights laws that followed, it helped change the workplace and began to combat wage inequality—but these laws have not been updated in decades and have not closed the persistent gap between women’s and men’s wages. The Paycheck Fairness Act would eliminate loopholes in the Equal Pay Act, breaking harmful patterns of pay discrimination and strengthening workplace protections for women.
Congresswoman Goodlander has dedicated her life to ensuring a fair deal for all Granite Staters. Before taking the oath of office, she served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice, where she took on the corporate monopolies hurting New Hampshire’s small businesses and held them accountable for jacking up prices and making life harder for hardworking Granite Staters.
