Equal Pay Day symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year.

President Joe Biden marked Equal Pay Day by spotlighting new steps aimed at closing the gender pay gap for federal workers and contractors.

President Joe Biden holds a face mask as he speaks during an event to mark Equal Pay Day in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus Wednesday, March 24, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON – The White House announced Thursday that it is dedicating another $10 billion to try to drive up vaccination rates in low-income, minority and rural enclaves throughout the country. AdSome of the funding will also be spent to help dialysis clinics provide COVID-19 vaccinations to people receiving dialysis and health care personnel in the clinics. About $300 million is earmarked for community health worker services to support COVID-19 prevention and control, and an additional $32 million is for training, technical assistance and evaluation, the White House said. The coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 545,000 people in the United States, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

President Joe Biden looks on after speaking during an event to mark Equal Pay Day in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus Wednesday, March 24, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden's dogs — Champ and Major — are roaming the White House again, after having been sent to Delaware when Major, the younger dog, injured a Secret Service agent. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at the Wednesday briefing that the dogs met the Bidens last weekend at Camp David in Maryland and came back to Washington on Sunday. The dogs had been in the Biden's home state of Delaware, where Major received some additional training after having been startled by a Secret Service agent who received a minor injury from the fracas. One of the two German shepherds waited on the balcony of the White House on Tuesday evening as Marine One landed on the South Lawn, having ferried the president back from a speech in Columbus, Ohio.

Biden and his wife, Jill, hosted a roundtable with Margaret Purce and Megan Rapinoe of the U.S. women’s national soccer team, and other members of the squad who attended virtually. “Doesn’t matter if you’re an electrician, an accountant or part of the best damn soccer team in the world,” Biden said. The suit was dismissed in May because the women had accepted a different base pay structure than the men's soccer team. The women's team plans to appeal the dismissal. The National Women's Law Center found that Black women earn just 63 cents for a dollar paid to a non-Hispanic white man, while Hispanic women make only 55 cents.

HOUSTON – Equal Pay Day symbolizes how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. Equal Pay Day originated with the National Committee on Pay Equity in 1996 as a public awareness event to illustrate the gap between men’s and women’s wages. It was originally called “National Pay Inequity Awareness Day” and changed to Equal Pay Day in 1998, according to the Washington-based National Committee on Pay Equity, a coalition of women’s and civil rights organizations and others devoted to eliminating sex- and race-based wage discrimination and to achieve pay equity. I believe we can achieve economic justice in this country — that means equal pay for equal work. #EqualPayDay pic.twitter.com/t7EH3xoSFQ — Human Rights Campaign (@HRC) March 24, 2021Equal work deserves equal pay, regardless of gender or race.