Working women in San Mateo County — and throughout the country —had something important in common on Tuesday. It’s the day we “catch up” with our male counterparts on the paycheck track. In other words, it takes about 14 months for women to earn what men earn in 12 months.

Generally, women are paid 77 cents for every dollar a man is paid, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The goal of Tuesday’s National Equal Pay Day is to call attention to this disturbing fact.

Economist Evelyn Murphy, president and founder of The WAGE Project, estimates that the wage gap costs the average American full-time woman worker between $700,000 and $2 million over the course of her lifetime.

There were 70.2 million women aged 16 and older in the workforce in 2007, a significant increase from 18.4 million in 1950. In 2007, women comprised 46 percent of the labor force. With more women in the work force, and more families reliant upon women’s paychecks for their livelihood, the U.S. must address the wage gap for the sake of American families and their financial stability.

Whether you are an employer, legislator or an individual working woman, you can help close the wage gap.

For more information about how you can support equal pay efforts, visit www.pay-equity.org/

Margie O’Clair

Commission on the Status of Women in San Mateo County

Belmont

Cow Palace redevelopment

Why does the state only want to sell 13 acres of the Cow Palace parking lot? The Palace is surrounded by dozens of acres of land that is either underused or ready for redevelopment. Daly City needs to take a serious look at the entire area.

For starters, the street leading to the Cow Palace is extremely wide and hard to safely cross. Then there is all the land to the east of the Palace that is ripe for redevelopment. Next, the entire area needs to look at extending the Muni T line into the neighborhood. This would be a great addition not only for residents but also for people going to events.

The Cow Palace itself needs to be completely gutted, including the current, cramped seating. Replacing the additions should also be a priority. They are falling apart and do not meet the needs of events. All of this would then allow the Cow Palace to be rebuilt to meet modern needs and also comply with the American with Disabilities Act. It would also allow all of the seating to be rearranged depending on the needs of each event. This could greatly expand the available floor space. I just urge the state not to drastically alter the exterior. It is a wonderful example of the design style of the era in which it was built.

William D. French Jr.

San Francisco

Political theater

Jerry Springer for President? Well if those ABC viewers had little else to go on they would indeed expect that might be the case. All that was left out of the mix would have been having candidate Clinton stomp over to Mr. Obama and wrestle him to the floor. How else to explain the 45 minutes of little more than gossip and foolishness?

Could it be that corporate America wants American voters to remain on this non-intelligent level of unquestioning of important policy issues while just concerning themselves with glitzy trivia?

This way the real undercurrents of why we invade nations that annoy our elites (the real ones) and keep allowing corporations and the wealthy to “offshore” their income which have nothing to do with investment strategy and everything to do with dodging the taxes that we everyday wage earners can’t tuck away in the same manner, remain “un-newsworthy.”

Mike Caggiano

San Mateo

Questions for a child genius

Boy, that is really some 3-year-old! Never mind no Harvard education, Mr. Page (Letters, “Questions about Obama,” April 17), you should just become manager for your genius and take the show on the road.

Michael Reichling

San Francisco

And more questions

Letter writer Paul Page (Questions About Obama, April 17th) purports to live in San Francisco.

I’d be interested to ask him, when was the last time a wolf actually threatened his children inside our fair city?

And yes, he definitely sounds bitter.

Tony Luini

San Francisco

I was going to write to you to complain about the green junk in todays paper (The Examiner, April 18), but, I saw something that really bothered me.

It was an opinion piece from some airhead from Illinois taking you to task for not printing some leftist garbage about government torture.

The last thing I need is another Dr. Feel Good telling a newspaper what not to write. It’s yet another example of symbolism over substance.

John Parry

San Mateo