[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 24, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E545]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  INTRODUCING THE FAIR PAY ACT OF 1999

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 24, 1999

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, Senator Tom Harkin and I are introducing the 
Fair Pay Act of 1999, a bill that would require employers to pay equal 
wages to women and men performing comparable jobs in an effort to 
remedy the pay inequities that women continue to endure. We introduce 
this bill simultaneously in both Houses as an indication of the 
preeminent importance many American families attach to equal pay today.
  At 76 percent of a men's wage, women's wages and the wage gap remain 
totally unacceptable. The continuing disparity is especially untenable 
considering that a significant part of the narrowing of the gap since 
1963 is because of a decline in men's wages over the decades. The Equal 
Pay Act (EPA) was passed in 1963, and by focusing on pay disparities 
where men and women were doing the same (or similar) jobs, has helped 
narrow the wage gap between men and women. The Fair Pay Act takes the 
Equal Pay Act an important step further and seeks to confront the pay 
disparity problem of the 1990's the way the EPA confronted the equal 
pay problem in the 1960's.
  Why has equal pay, once considered a women's issue, gone to the top 
of the polls for American families today? American families are 
becoming deeply dependent on women's wages today. Even in two-parent 
families, 66% of the women work, and the number of female-headed 
households has more than doubled since 1970.
  Although most American families today must rely heavily on women's 
wages, women continue to earn less than their male counterparts with 
comparable qualifications and duties. Women complete more schooling 
than men but still have not caught up with men in earnings. Much of 
what progress has been made can be traced to the earnings of a small 
group of professional or highly skilled women. The average woman--the 
woman who works in a historically underpaid traditionally female 
occupation--has seen little progress. Over her lifetime, a woman loses 
over $420,000 because of pay inequity, and collectively, women and 
their families lose more than $100 billion in wages each year because 
of wage discrimination.
  The FPA recognizes that if men and women are doing comparable work, 
they should be paid a comparable wage. If a woman is an emergency 
services operator, a female-dominated profession, for example, she 
should be paid no less than a fire dispatcher, a male-dominated 
profession, simply because each of these jobs has been dominated by one 
sex. If a woman is a social worker, a traditionally female occupation, 
she should earn no less than a probation officer, a traditionally male 
job, simply because of the gender associated with each of these jobs.
  The FPA, like the EPA, will not tamper with the market system. As 
with the EPA, the burden will be on the plaintiff to prove 
discrimination. She must show that the reason for the disparity is sex 
or race discrimination, not legitimate market factors.
  As women's employment has become an increasingly significant factor 
in the real dollar income of American families, fair pay between the 
sexes has escalated in importance. There are remaining Equal Pay Act 
problems in our society, but the greatest barrier to pay fairness for 
women and their families today is a line drawn in the workplace between 
men and women doing work of comparable value. I ask for your support of 
the Fair Pay Act to pay women what they are worth so that their 
families may get what they need and deserve.

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