by ©2019 Sarah Becker Copyright © 2019 Sarah Becker Equal Pay Day – Let’s Celebrate??? April 2 is Equal Pay Day. Wanna celebrate? According to the American Association of University Women’s 2018 annual report, The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap, Virginia ranks 29th in gender equality. The Commonwealth’s Equal Pay laws are “weak,” and the pay gap is “real.” Virginia women “are paid 79 cents, on average, for every dollar paid to a man.” “While the nation’s unemployment rate is down, and the number of women working is up, the wage gap is sadly remaining stagnant,” AAUW Chief Executive Officer Kim Churches said. “It’s unacceptable.” The Equal Pay Act became law in 1963; the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938. In the United States, in 2017, median annual earnings for full-time workers were $41,977 for women, $52,146 for men. “If the pay gap narrows at the same rate of change since 2001, it will not close until 2106,” the AAUW explained. Female pay ratios by occupation: financial managers 65%, physicians and surgeons 71%, lawyers 76%, education administrators 78%, and registered nurses 92%. Iceland is first in the world when it comes to gender pay equity. “With a population of just 330,000—fewer people than currently work at Amazon—the island nation has had progressive equal pay laws for years.” Not so in the United States. President Donald Trump (R-NY) froze an equal pay wage data rule in 2017. Compliance, The White House said “imposed an incredible amount of burden” on business. The President also removed the Equal Pay Pledge from The White House website. “Equal work deserves equal pay,” Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA) said in 2015. “This isn’t simply an issue of fairness, it’s about strengthening our middle class—putting food on the table, gas in the tank,…