WOMEN’S RIGHTS — PAY GAP DEPRIVES WOMEN OF $434,000 IN LIFETIME EARNINGS:

 A new Center for American Progress Action Fund report by Jessica Arons finds that the career pay gap — the difference between the median wages of full-time working men and women over a 40 year period — deprives women of an average of $434,000 over the course of their working lives. A woman typically makes 78 cents for every dollar earned by a man doing similar work — a gap that widens over time. The pay gap persists across all income and education levels; in fact, women with the most education lose the most comparatively in earnings. Arons notes that women with a college degree or higher lose $713,000 over a 40-year period, versus $270,000 lost for women who do not finish high school. The pay gap is the widest in finance and management careers, and narrowest in construction and maintenance. As Arons writes, “The career pay gap represents an outrageous, unacceptable, and unjustifiable loss to women and their families, as well as to our economy.” Congress can do something to close the gap by passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would make it easier for women to be compensated for pay discrimination and give employers incentives to close the pay gap. I Am Progress released a video encouraging Congress to act. Watch it and sign a petition telling the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to stop blocking pay equity.

www.thingprogress.org

This Thanksgiving, progressives have a lot to be thankful for. Here’s our list:

We’re thankful we’ll soon have a president who will hit the ground running instead of a president who is running the country into the ground.

We’re thankful that Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow are demonstrating every night how strong and intelligent progressive voices can be successful on TV.

We’re thankful we live in acenter-left America rather than”Hannity’s America.”

We’re thankful John McCain has more time to spend in the houses he owns…even if he can’t remember them all.

We’re thankful Sarah Palin has more time to watch over Russia and warn us in case Vladimir Putin ever “rears his head.”

We’re thankful that we’re moving closer towards a complete withdrawal from Iraq.

We’re thankful for the thousands of protesters who took to the streets across America to push for marriage equality.

We’renot thankful for neo-McCarthys, neo-Hoovers, neo-Nazis, and neocons.

We’re thankful for Tina Fey.

We’re thankful to be liberal hacks.

We’re not thankful for hack operatives burrowing into career civil service jobs.

We’re more thankful for Vice President Joe Biden and “Morning Joe” than Joe Lieberman and “Joe the Plumber.”

We’re thankful that our troops will be able to get the education they so richly deserve.

We’re thankful for the “Mustache of Justice,” “Rahmbo,” “Axe,” and “Skippy.”

We’re thankful that reality still has a liberal bias.

We’re thankful that there are only 55 days left until the end of the George W. Bush presidency.

We’re thankful for the progressive mandate to govern.

Happy Thanksgiving!

www.thingprogress.org

I’ve been thinking a lot about what Maya Angelou said recently, “We are more alike than we are different.” She talked about how even when people are divided politically, racially and or socially, we are alike in our desire for safety, security, health and happiness. We all want our children to be educated, we want good jobs, a safe home and happiness. This very cool video reminded me of all of that. We are more alike than we are different and we need to come together and work things out.

Enjoy!

http://www.duirwaigh.com/hope.mov