Glass half empty: State senator rations lemonade to tackle gender wage gap

Aug. 7 is Black Women's Equal Pay Day in the United States, and state Sen. Marilyn Moore rationed out cups of free lemonade to raise awareness.
Each cup of lemonade represents the recipient's gender and race based on 2016 U.S. Census data. The Aug. 7 date represents how long a black woman, on average, must work into 2018 to make the same amount a white man made in 2017.
So a white man gets a cup filled to the top. An Asian woman gets a cup filled 80 percent of the way. 
Sen. Moore says she wants to show how broad the disparities really are. Black women, she says, earn 63 cents on the dollar, compared to their white male counterparts. White women make 83 cents on the dollar.
"That's what the data shows," she says. "There is a huge disparity between white women and black women -- but most especially between women and men."
In addition with a free cup (or partial cup) of lemonade, Moore is giving out information about how she'd like to tackle the wage-gap issue.
In the last legislative year, a proposed bill for equal pay failed to gain traction. She says she's expecting more success in 2019.
"I think nowadays, we should have equal pay," Moore says. "To be honest with you, I think women are a lot brighter."