But as Demos senior policy analyst Amy Traub points out in a blog post on Friday, "[b]eing paid less for doing the same job is just one aspect of the pay gap."
"Since women are more likely than their male counterparts to leave the workforce or reduce their work hours to care for children, elderly parents, or other loved ones in need, they miss out on pay, job experience, and opportunities to advance in their careers, further fueling the gender gap in pay," she explains. "As I've noted before, providing paid family leave boosts incomes and enables women to remain attached to the workforce. Over time, paid leave could cut the pay gap in a less direct—but potentially more powerful—way than policies that aim at fighting straightforward discrimination, as vital as they are."