Dear John,

Are you a mom? If so, Happy Moms’ Equal Pay Day—that’s right, May 5 is how far into the year mothers must work to catch up to what fathers made last year alone. (Obviously this is not actually a Happy Day.) Mothers are typically paid only 75 cents for every dollar paid to fathers—and that was before the pandemic.

The COVID-19 crisis continues to lay bare the many ways in which our society and institutions are failing moms and working parents—with big consequences for families’ finances and well-being. This Moms’ Equal Pay Day, the National Women’s Law Center is showing up for ALL parents by fighting for paycheck fairness, affordable child care, and access to reproductive health care. Will you join us today with a special donation to help support working moms as we face the continuing effects of the pandemic?

At the start of the pandemic, many mothers lost work or were forced to quit their jobs to take care of children and family members when schools and child care shut down. Now more than a year into the COVID crisis, many moms who kept their jobs are still struggling every day to balance child care, remote learning, and other responsibilities on top of work.

And of course, unemployment and income loss has hit Black, Latina, and Native American moms—who face a bigger pay gap to begin with—the hardest. The lack of support for working parents in the pandemic has only exacerbated existing inequity—and the situation is more urgent than ever for mothers of color.

Please donate now to help fuel our work supporting and advocating for all parents, now and in the future. You can even make a gift in honor of your mom or a maternal or parental figure in your life—Mother’s Day is on Sunday!

The far-reaching effects of the COVID-19 crisis will reverberate for years to come, and threaten to widen racial, gender, and motherhood wage gaps. It’s going to take all of us working together to lay the groundwork for a fairer and more inclusive economy with accessible, affordable child care, pregnancy accommodations, equal pay for equal work, and more—a world where all moms are truly valued and supported.

Make your Moms’ Equal Pay Day gift now to join us in this work.

Sincerely,

Emily Martin
(she/her/hers)
Vice President for Education & Workplace Justice
National Women’s Law Center

Read more about the wage gap for mothers in NWLC’s latest fact sheet.