[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 58 (Thursday, April 10, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E722]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




FAIR PAY ACT WITH FEMALE CUSTODIANS TO PRESS PAY EQUITY TO COMMEMORATE 
                             EQUAL PAY DAY

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 9, 2003

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today I and other members of the House and 
Senate introduced two bills--the Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness 
Act--at a press conference with a female custodial employee, who 
successfully sued the Architect of the Capitol for wage discrimination. 
An excerpt of the press conference follows.
       Norton's Fair Pay Act, introduced in the Senate by Senator 
     Tom Harkin (D-IA), addresses sex segregation ``where work is 
     paid according to gender and not the job to be performed,'' 
     she said, ``the major cause of the pay gap today.'' The Fair 
     Pay Act addresses wages that often are lower in female 
     dominated occupations, such as nursing, teaching and social 
     work, and would allow suits under Title VII of the Civil 
     Rights Act of 1964 for jobs with the same skill, effort and 
     responsibility, as comparable male jobs, even if the jobs are 
     not the same in content. Norton, who was the chair of the 
     Equal Employment Opportunity Commission during the Carter 
     Administration, was the first woman to head the agency.
       Norton also became an original co-sponsor of the Paycheck 
     Fairness Act, which seeks to update the Equal Pay Act (EPA) 
     allowing suits for equal pay for equal work. ``At a 
     minimum,'' Norton said: ``Pat Harris and 48 other female 
     custodians, who work right here in the Capitol should be the 
     last word on the continued importance of the EPA and the 
     urgent need to update it. If female custodians can be paid 
     $1.00 an hour less than their male counterparts right under 
     the nose of the Congress, it is surely time to reexamine the 
     40 year old Equal Pay Act.''
       Norton said that the female custodians' case also 
     demonstrates why the Fair Pay Act is necessary ``as a 21st 
     century amendment to the EPA.'' The Congresswoman, who from 
     the inception of the suit, worked closely with the female 
     custodians, their union, AFSCME local 626 officials, and 
     their lawyers, pressed the Architect to settle the suit. She 
     said that settlement discussions were ``endlessly protracted 
     by the Architect's claim that the laborers did different 
     work. The female custodians' case actually was a classic 
     equal pay case, but settlement would have occurred earlier if 
     the Fair Pay Act had already been law.'' Last year, Norton 
     was invited to join the female custodians at the Ford 
     Building when they received the checks they won as a result 
     of the settlement. She said that the women showed exemplary 
     courage in stepping forward to become the first to sue under 
     the Congressional Accountability Act, which holds Congress 
     accountable for the laws it applies to others.

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