LINDA WERTHEIMER, BYLINE: On this day 50 years ago, President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, guaranteeing that women earn the same pay as men for work of equal value. The following year, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act banned discrimination at work.
Now, half a century later, the Obama administration is pushing Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, designed to make wage differences more transparent. Some dispute the frequently-cited figure that women are paid only 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. But most agree that the gap become more significant for a woman in her childbearing years.
NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports.
