Lucas,
Would you vote for a politician who didn't support equal pay for equal work? What about one who opposed raising the minimum wage or who thought it was okay for a worker to be fired for staying home sick? Or for your boss to decide if you can afford birth control?
Why does this matter? Because women are only paid $0.78 for every dollar a man is paid. 64-percent of minimum wage workers are women. And 80-percent of low-wage workers don't have a single paid sick day.
It's why the new Fair Shot Action campaign is asking us all to demand our politicians take a stand on these issues when we cast our votes this November (or this October if you're voting early!).
If you believe in making sure women and working families have a fair shot to get ahead, pledge to be a Fair Shot Voter.
Now imagine being a mom who works a minimum wage job with no paid sick days and your child comes down with the flu. Do you stay home with your sick child and risk not making rent or being fired? Or do you leave your sick kid home alone? It's a choice no parent should have to make.
Access to birth control, equal pay, paid sick days, childcare, and raising the minimum wage are critical policies that women and families depend on. We need to send a message to politicians that these issues matter to us and that we're not okay with the status quo — and the best way to do that in an election year is to do it with our votes.
Pledge to vote for politicians who support women and working families. Take the Fair Shot pledge.
Thanks for all you do,
Kate Black
Research Director, EMILY's List