On Equal Pay Day, Good News and Bad News

It takes a woman until the following Tuesday to earn what a man does in a single week, and more than 15 months to earn what a man does in a year, according to the National Committee on Pay Equity. That's why Tuesday is Equal Pay Day, representing how far into 2017 women have had to work to draw even with men in 2016, explains NBC News. The news, however, isn't all bleak in the eyes of Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg. A look at coverage:

• Rallies are being held around the country to raise awareness. But the #20PercentCounts retail campaign, in which companies are offering 20% discounts to women (and men as well) in 25 cities, is another way organizers hope to make a splash, per a news release.
• Karin Agness at Forbes takes issue with what she calls a "flawed holiday." The stat that women earn 20% less "does not factor in many of the choices that women and men make—including education, years of experience and hours worked—that influence earnings."
• Emily Martin of the National Women's Law Center disagrees, laying out four reasons in US News and World Report for the pay inequity. No. 1: Studies showing that women get paid less than men for the same work. Unless the gap is closed, a typical 20-year-old woman starting full-time work today will make $418,800 less than her male counterpart over a 40-year career.

• A post at LinkedIn finds that fewer than 30% of those employed in the top 100 highest paying jobs in America are women. Many of those jobs are found in male-dominated industries, like tech.
• Four years after publishing Lean In, her book on women in the workforce, Sandberg tells USA Today that "we are not better off" in terms of female leadership. But in the Q&A, she also says she's optimistic because of all the growing "energy" around the subject.
• Money describes four victories in the fight for equal pay over the last year, including the USA women's hockey team's successful fight for raises.
• Nebraska Republican Sen. Deb Fischer hopes to score another win. At CNN, she lays out the goals of two bills she's sponsored, one of which would prevent retaliatory action against employees who ask for salary information.
• She appears to have an ally in the White House. "Women deserve equal pay for equal work. We must work to close the gender pay gap!" Ivanka Trump tweeted Tuesday.

(More gender pay gap stories.)