David Schmader mentioned it in morning news, but it seems worth explaining why April 8 has been dubbed Equal Pay Day: Today marks how many extra days American women have to work to make up how much American men got paid last year. (The date depends on your math and/or your demographic, with some people pegging it at the end of February instead.)

But this is the day DC politicians are celebrating. Patty Murray, as Schmader pointed out, is spending the day pushing for passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act, while President Obama signed an executive order "prohibiting federal contractors from retaliating against employees who choose to discuss their compensation" and a presidential memorandum directing the Secretary of Labor to start getting compensation data from federal contractors, "including data by sex and race."

Meanwhile, closer to home, the City of Seattle is, after 8 months of research and analysis, now trying to directly address its own 10 percent pay gap. In addition to addressing gender segregation in jobs—which, as I wrote about yesterday, screws over everyone since the more women there are in a job category, the lower everyone in the job category gets paid—they'll hopefully move on changing some employment and recruiting practices, including instituting paid parental leave.

Why parental leave? According to the Pew Research Center, among others, part of the pay gap can likely be attributed to the fact that women are still responsible for a majority of child, family, and home care, with inevitable career interruptions. Get on it, city hall.

One last #equalpayday word: