Child care costs more than college. Mothers with equal résumés are hired less than 80 percent of the time than non-mothers and are offered lower starting salaries. It costs more than $200,000 to raise one child from birth to age 18 (not including college).

All of this is happening every day in the backdrop of a national "Lean In" conversation.

Women are bringing home the bacon, says AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Shuler, and what are they most concerned about this election? Jobs and the economy.

Shuler addressed more than 100 women of all ages at a Women Vote 2012 kick-off luncheon today at the AFL-CIO headquarters. 

Now, more than ever, women need to make sure their voices are heard about the kind of future they envision for themselves and their families. 

The majority of those paid the minimum wage are women: In 2011, more than 62 percent of minimum wage workers were women, compared with only 38 percent of male minimum wage workers, according to a new report by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

It’s especially bad that women make up the majority of minimum wage earners because women are paid 77 cents for every dollar a typical man earns. Women of color are far more likely to hold low-wage jobs than men, and two-thirds of mothers now are either the breadwinners or co-breadwinners for their families.