July 21, 2014

Pay equity for women is a hot topic in Congress these days. Cynics say it is because Democrats are eager to stir up female voters who, according to the Associated Press, comprised 53 percent of all voters in 2012 and preferred Democrats by 11 percentage points.

The Associated Press points out that the voting rate for women drops in non-presidential elections like the one coming up in November, so Democrats are doing their best to get women interested in the election so they’ll go to the polls.

Thursday, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut) co-hosted a press conference with advocacy group Social Security Works to release new research that says closing the gender pay gap would strengthen Social Security’s finances and improve women’s benefits over their retirement. DeLauro said that currently women earn 77 cents for every $1 that men earn, and if women made more, they would pay more into Social Security. “Closing the gender pay gap would provide greater Social Security benefits for women and it would reduce the long-term Social Security shortfall by one-third,” DeLauro says.