Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is tired of commemorating Equal Pay Day, calling it "a national day of embarrassment" in a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday.
"Today is Equal Pay Day, and by the sound of it, you would think it's some sort of historic holiday commemorating the anniversary of a landmark day that our country guaranteed equal pay for women," she said. "But that's not what this is about. Not even close."
"In the year 2016, at a time with self-driving cars and computers that sit on your wrist, women still make only 79 cents for every dollar a man makes," she continued. "And we're still standing here in the United States Congress debating whether a woman should get fired for asking what the guy down the hall makes for doing exactly the same job."
She slammed her GOP colleagues for refusing to pass equal pay legislation and instead pursuing policies that jeopardize women's health and economic security.
"Heck, they'd rather spend their time trying to defund Planned Parenthood health clinics and cut women's access to birth control than do anything -- anything at all -- to give working women a raise," she said.
Warren argued that despite the robust economic growth of the last few years, there has been little progress for women who face discrimination in the workplace.
"The game is rigged against women and families, and it has to stop," she said. "It is 2016, not 1916, and it's long past time to eliminate gender discrimination in the workplace."
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