“The U.S. is woefully behind when it comes to family-friendly policies like paid maternity leave, paid parental leave, paid sick leave, when it comes to some measure of recognition about women’s leadership,” said Vicki Shabo, a vice president at the National Partnership for Women & Families. “I think that has real consequences for how women are able to get into and advance in the workplace and in the economy.”

“This could coerce employees into providing information that they would otherwise not provide about their health,” said Sarah Fleisch Fink, senior policy counsel with the National Partnership on Women & Families, which was among dozens of groups that wrote comment letters seeking changes in the draft rule.

Vicki Shabo, vice president of the National Partnership for Women and Families, advised MTV on the policy issues and research studies relevant to the issue of gender-based pay quality. “The 79 percent number is known, but people don’t always consider the consequences. Reducing the median American income by $10,700 for women translates into 83 weeks of food, or 11 months of rent, or nine years of birth control,” she told The Daily Beast.

Data for these metrics was drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Child Care Aware of America, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Council for Community and Economic Research, National Partnership for Women & Families, and WalletHub’s own research.

Black women work more than all other women, but reap fewer economic rewards. According to a December 2015 report by the National Partnership for Women and Families, a state by state analysis shows black women’s wages range from 48 to 69 cents for every dollar paid to white men.