; Whereas the disparity in median annual earnings for women and men working full time, year round is $9,954, 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 78 percent of men’s earnings, and women with a professional degree earning 70 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 are breadwinners in more than half of families with children under 18, and mothers working full time typically are paid 74 percent of what fathers are paid; Whereas the gender wage gap collectively costs women employed full time in the United States more than $958,000,000,000 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, on average, a working woman in the United States would have enough money for approximately 1 year of childcare, 8 additional months of rent, 6 additional months of mortgage and utilities payments, 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 8 additional years of birth control, more than 62 weeks of food, or enough money to pay off student loan debt in just under 4 years; Whereas women hold nearly two-thirds of the Nation’s $1,700,000,000,000 in 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