“Compounded over the years of employment at City Hall, it’s a significant loss of income for those women,” said Sonia Ossorio, president of the National Organization for Women New York City and New York State. “When you consider that many women experience a pay gap at many points throughout their career, the loss is staggering and impacts families’ standard of living and women’s quality of life in retirement.”

"We have identified the serial predators who are rich and powerful. There are thousands more out there. And the people who allow it to happen, particularly in workplaces or places of worship, putting the spotlight on them, that's the next phase of 'Me Too,'" says president of NOW-NYC Sonia Ossorio.

Epstein’s crimes are sweeping and flagrant, but not drastically different from what commercial sexual exploitation looks like every single day in cities across America. Women and girls, mostly of color and poor, are bought and sold in a sex trade that targets and recruits the most vulnerable among us. Men, many rich and powerful, fuel the market for exploitation each time they exchange money for sexual access.