• Press Release

EMILYs List Recognizes Asian American and Pacific Islander Women’s Equal Pay Day

February 22, 2018

EMILY's List Recognizes Asian American and Pacific Islander Women's Equal Pay Day
 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today Stephanie Schriock, president of EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, released the following statement in honor of Asian American-Pacific Islander Women's Equal Pay Day: 

“Today represents how many extra days an Asian American or Pacific Islander woman in the United States had to work in order to earn what a white, non-Hispanic man earned at the end of 2017. On average, full-time working AAPI women in the U.S. are paid only 87 cents for every dollar a white, non-Hispanic man makes. The wage gaps for African American, Native American, and Hispanic women are even wider.” 

“This is unacceptable, and we need leaders in office who will work to fix this problem, not ignore it. Expanding economic opportunities for AAPI women and compensating them fairly for their work is a critical step toward building a fairer society and closing the pay gap for everyone.” 

“At EMILY's List, we're working hard to elect more AAPI women to office up and down the ballot to join leaders like Sen. Mazie Hirono, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, and Sen. Kamala Harris at tables of power. These include powerful EMILY's List candidates and future U.S. congresswomen like Vietnamese refugee and pediatrician Mai Khanh Tran and veteran and public servant Gina Ortiz Jones.”

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $500 million to support pro-choice Democratic women candidates – making them one of the most successful political organizations ever. Our grassroots community of over five million members helps Democratic women wage competitive campaigns – and win. We recruit and train candidates, support strong campaigns, research the issues that impact women and families, and turn out women voters. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect 116 women to the House, 23 to the Senate, 12 governors, and over 800 to state and local office. Forty percent of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. Since the 2016 election, thousands of women and counting have reached out to us about running for office. To harness this energy, EMILYs List has launched Run to Win, an unprecedented effort to get more women to run at the local, state, and national levels.