On April 12, 2016, the nation celebrated Equal Pay Day. Equal Pay Day was founded by the National Committee on Pay Equity (NCPE) in 1996 as an event to demonstrate the pay gap between women and men. The date symbolizes how far into the year women must work in order to earn what men were paid the year before. This means for 12 months of men’s work, women must work 16 months to earn the same amount as men. On average, women are paid 79 cents to every dollar men are paid. Even though this may not seem like a lot, it adds up. In 2014, men who worked full time earned an average of $50,383. For women working full time earned only $39,621, according to CNN Money. The gap adds up to $10,762, which is a significant amount. If you are a woman and plan to work in D.C. when you grow up, you are in luck. The smallest wage gap in the country is in D.C., which is $0.10.

There are many people supporting Equal Pay Day, even men. President Barack Obama officially announced April 12, 2016, as National Equal Pay Day and declared the Sewall-Belmont House to be a new national monument in Washington, D.C., to honor women’s equality. The members of this house led the women’s equality movement and were authors of 600 pieces of legislation for equal rights for hundreds of years.

Obama has already passed lots of legislation supporting equality for women. Already looking towards the future, next month the White House will host a Summit on “The United State of Women.” The summit will create an opportunity to discuss the progress made by and for women around the world to talk about the challenges they face and how to fix them.

There are still many problems with the pay gap and many things that are needed to be fixed, however, we are a step in the right direction.