; Whereas the disparity in median annual earnings for women and men working full time, year round is $9,990, which can add up to nearly $400,000 over a career; Whereas women’s median earnings are less than men’s at every level of academic achievement, with women with less than a high school diploma earning 72 percent of men’s earnings, and women with a professional degree earning 73 percent of men’s earnings at the same level of education; Whereas women are often paid less than men with lower levels of education, with women with associate’s degrees paid less than men with a high school diploma, and women with master’s degrees paid less than men with bachelor’s degrees; Whereas, in the United States, mothers working full time typically are paid 75 percent of what fathers are paid; Whereas the gender wage gap collectively costs women employed full time in the United States more than $965,000,000,000 in annual lost wages, so that families have less money to spend on goods and services that help drive economic growth; Whereas, if the annual gender wage gap were eliminated for just 1 year, on average, a working woman in the United States would have enough money for approximately 11 months of childcare, nearly 8 additional months of rent, more than 5 additional months of mortgage and utilities payments, 2 semesters of tuition and fees for a 4-year public university or the full cost of tuition and fees for attending a 2-year college, more than 6 additional months of premiums for employer-based health insurance, more than 55 weeks of food, or enough money to pay off student loan debt in just under 5 years; Whereas women hold nearly two-thirds of the Nation’s outstanding student loan debt, totaling over $929,000,000,000, and are less likely to be able to pay off their student loan debt promptly due to wage disparities; Whereas the wage gap impacts women’s ability to save for retirement and women’s total Social Security and pension benefits, and older women are more likely than men to live in poverty