It’s almost 2016, two women are in the running for the highest office in the land, and yet women are still fighting for equal pay. What?

The gender wage gap exists and it is hurting women and families. Closing the wage gap would improve individual families’ finances as well as create a huge economic stimulus for the U.S. economy.

Heidi Hartmann, economist and president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, says that closing the wage gap would help the U.S. economy grow by at least 3 percent. This would cut the poverty rate for working women and families nearly in half, and add an additional $447.6 billion to the U.S. economy.