Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) discussed the implications of the gender pay gap on HuffPost Live Monday, saying it costs an average woman nearly half a million dollars over her career.

“We still have women that earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns doing the same work,” Wasserman Schultz explained. “Over the average woman’s lifetime, working life, she loses $430,000 in income based on that disparity.”

Wasserman Schultz used this data to make the case for passing the Paycheck Fairness Act. Wasserman Schultz spoke to HuffPost Live before participating in the White House Summit on Working Families Monday, which brings aims to shed light on the issues working parents face by bringing politicians, business leaders and ordinary citizens together in a high-profile discussion.

“The problem is is that too many women don’t have the ability to know what their coworkers, who are doing the same work, earn, and their coworkers can be penalized by their employers for sharing that information,” Wasserman Schultz said. “The Paycheck Fairness Act would take away that penalty and allow for the exchange of salary information and also make sure that there is another measure of accountability so that we can actually enforce the Equal Pay Act.”