[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 47 (Tuesday, April 3, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E531]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                INTRODUCTION OF THE FAIR PAY ACT OF 2001

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 3, 2001

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today Senator Tom Harkin and I are 
introducing the Fair Pay Act of 2001, a bill that would require 
employers to pay equal wages to women and men performing equivalent 
work but not the same work 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.
  A recent Labor Department study, requested by Senator Harkin and 
voted by Congress last term bolsters the goals of the Fair Pay Act 
(FPA). The Labor Department studied wage trends among federal 
contractors. Its conclusions are far more important than the perhaps 
predictable finding that the gender gap for federal contractors is 
about the same as it is for U.S. employers as a whole. The most 
important Labor Department finding is that the major cause of the pay 
gap is the segregation of women into female-gender occupations. The 
Department makes the startling finding that, ``Since 1979, the 
contribution of occupational segregation to the pay gap has jumped from 
explaining 18 to 46 percent of the gap.'' This finding virtually 
demonstrates our Fair Pay Act claim that the only way to combat pay 
discrimination today is to attack directly the practice of paying women 
less because they are doing ``women's work.'' We cannot come to grips 
with the pay problems of the average American family without 
confronting the reality that the average woman works in an occupation 
that is 70 percent female, while the average man works in an occupation 
that is 29 percent female. Pay tracks gender.
  Today, many more women have equivalent pay problems than traditional 
equal pay problems, thanks to the 1963 Equal Pay Act. Important as it 
is to update the EPA, it has been clear, at least since I chaired the 
EEOC in the Carter Administration, that the EPA needs major revision to 
cope with the stubborn pay problems that trap most women and their 
families. The Fair Pay Act accomplishes the necessary revision without 
tampering with the market system. A woman would file a discrimination 
claim but, as in all discrimination cases, she would have to prove that 
the reason for the gap between herself and a male co-worker doing 
equivalent work in the same workplace is discrimination and not other 
reasons, such as legitimate market factors. Gender, of course, is not a 
legitimate market factor.
  The good news from the Labor Department study is that gender 
segregation has fallen since 1970 because women with greater 
opportunities have moved into traditionally male occupations. The bad 
news is that there is a limit to how much we want to encourage 
teachers, nurses, factory workers, librarians, and other indispensable 
workers to abandon these vital occupations in order to be paid a decent 
wage. The frightening flight of women from vital work and occupations 
has left children without teachers, hospitals without nurses, and 
communities and employers without other vital workers.
  The Fair Pay Act 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, 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 not earn less than a probation officer, a traditionally male 
job, simply because of the gender associated with each of these jobs.
  The FPA, like the Equal Pay Act (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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