“For women who are lucky enough to have a paycheck, there are several Valentine’s gifts more satisfying than those sickly sweet candy hearts. A dozen roses will be wilted and trashed by her next payday, but equal pay for equal work will make a difference over a lifetime. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the average twenty-five-year-old woman will earn $523,000 less than her male counterpart over the next forty years. Further, everyone knows that women still only make 77 cents to the male dollar, but when you break it down by race, the disparity becomes even more dramatic: Latina women, for example, earn 59.2% and African American women 71.9% as much as white men Instead of reciting poetry to your sweetie on February 14th, why not recite the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to her employer?

Instead of sending a singing telegram, how about sending more bills to Congress and state legislatures to make quality child care more affordable and accessible: one of the main barriers to women’s economic advancement?”