Governor Mead Signs Equal Pay Day Proclamation [VIDEO]

Governor Matt Mead signed the 2014 Wyoming Equal Pay Day Proclamation on Tuesday. He was joined by the Wyoming Council for Women’s Issues and the Wyoming Women’s Foundation. 

The proclamation marked continuing efforts to create more opportunities for women and decrease the wage gap. Equal pay day in Wyoming is observed on June 24th because it takes that long for the average woman in wyoming to make as much as a man did the year before. The National Equal Pay Day was observed this year on April 7th.

Governor Mead Wyoming’s unemployment rate is currently 3.8 percent and he added he hears from employers who are now struggling to find workers. Mead said the state is "pushing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in our schools and showing all students that there are many opportunities in these fields.

Carma Corra, head of the Wyoming Council for Women’s Issues, said the Council encourages employee-friendly practices like job sharing, flexible scheduling and access to child care. She added that the Council wants to "promote anything that will help a mother, or a father, not to have to make a choice between career and family.”

The proclamation states, in part, that “fair pay for everyone enhances the economy, improves financial security and lessens pressure on the costs of retirement.”