Mark Hinton 2-8-18 Weekly Radio Address Podcast

Mark Hinton and his 2-8-18 weekly radio address:

The study found that for every $1 a man made in Indiana in 2016, a woman in Indiana only made 74 cents.

TRANSCRIPT:

The gender wage gap in Indiana is an issue that needs focus. On December 19th 2017, The Indianapolis Star published an article over a study that shows Indiana’s gender wage gap to be one of the worst in the country. The study found that for every $1 a man made in Indiana in 2016, a woman in Indiana only made 74 cents. For minority and disabled women this wage gap only grows.

Now, if that’s not shocking enough, they found that in more recent years most states narrowed their gender wage gap. Meanwhile Indiana has widened their gender wage gap. In April of 2013 a similar study came out where women were making 75 cents on every dollar their male counterpart made.

The Indiana Institute for Working Families also released a study that same month that found that women in Indiana experience poverty more than men. About 40% of single mothers living in Indiana in 2016 had work incomes below the poverty line.

So, here we are in 2017 years later and women are making less on the dollar of their male counterparts and women are more likely to find themselves with incomes below the poverty line. How can we be regressing as a state on such a big issue of equality? Even if you are a male living in Indiana, don’t you want the women in your life to be paid the same as their male counterparts? I believe that as a state we need to be progressive to be a major player in the 21st Century Economy and Workforce. But to do that we need to narrow our gender wage gap to attract larger companies to relocate to Indiana and keep more of our female graduates here.