By Queenie Wong

“It’s about all of us taking action. Elected officials have a role to play in passing and enforcing the right laws. Businesses need to audit pay by gender and race so they can see and address pay gaps — and work to make sure performance reviews and promotions are fair. And we all need to celebrate, and not penalize women, when they advocate for themselves and ask for more,” she said.

Closing the pay gap would lift 3.1 million working women and their families out of poverty and add $513 billion in new income each year to the U.S. economy, according to research commissioned by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.

Growing up in San Jose and the first in her family to go to college, Dapelo-Garcia recalled that her parents never talked to her about salary negotiation.

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