Will Snowe & Collins Walk the Walk on Wage Gap?

In the early part of this decade, Maine lawmakers took action to address the gender wage gap — in which women earned less than men for comparable work — by passing legislation requiring full implementation of Maine’s Equal Pay Law.

But as critical as this law has been, Maine’s wage gap is actually widening. In 2007, on average, women in Maine working full-time year-round earned only 76 percent of what men working full-time, year-round earned. This is below what Maine women were earning in 2006 and is two percentage points below the nationwide average.

Now, the ball is in Congress’s court. Maine Republican Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins could well make the difference as to whether discrimination is allowed to persist.