[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 56 (Tuesday, April 20, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2470-S2471]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EQUAL PAY DAY
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today is Equal Pay Day: After 16 months of
work, professional women today will finally have earned what their male
counterparts earned in just 12 months of work last year. It is shameful
that gender discrimination still exists in our country, and I hope
today will serve as an important reminder that we must redouble our
efforts to fully close the wage gap.
Forty-six years have passed since the Equal Pay Act was enacted, yet
the disparity between women's and men's salaries stubbornly remains.
Congress passed title VII of the Civil Rights Act to protect employees
against discrimination with respect to compensation because of an
individual's race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
Unfortunately, a narrow ruling by the Supreme Court in 2008 meant that
those who are subject to pay discrimination have no claim to remedies
unless a suit is filed no more than 180 days after the pay
discrimination first takes place, even if they were unaware of the
discriminatory pay. This ruling eroded longstanding interpretation of
discrimination laws and created a new obstacle for victims of pay
discrimination to receive justice.
Last year, the new Congress achieved what could not be done before:
We enacted the ``Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act'', which I was proud to
cosponsor with Senators Mikulski, Kennedy and others. This bill
restored victim's ability to file suit for pay discrimination and
became the first bill President Obama signed into law. Lilly Ledbetter,
the courageous woman who was the subject of decades of pay
discrimination, continues to fight to ensure other women do not
experience the same wage disparity she did for so many years. Lilly
visited Vermont last fall as the keynote speaker at the Women's
Economic Conference I host every year. Vermonters who attended that
conference have written me and stopped me in the street to tell me how
much her story meant to them. I hope Lilly continues to speak to
inspire thousands more women to pursue pay equity.
The ``Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act'' was an important first step in
supporting equal pay for equal work, but our efforts must not stop
there. Today, women are still paid just 77 cents on average for every
dollar a man makes. Over the course of a womans career, the pay gap
will mean between $400,000 and $2 million in lost wages. Eight years
ago Vermont acted to pass an equal pay act, which prohibits paying
female or male workers differently for equal work that requires equal
skill, effort, and responsibility under similar working conditions. Now
in Vermont, employers cannot require wage nondisclosure agreements and
employees are protected from retaliation for disclosing their own wage.
As a result, Vermont leads the country in having one of the narrowest
wage gaps between women and men. Today, in celebration of Equal Pay
Day, Vermont's Business & Professional Women and the Vermont Commission
on Women will join their member organizations at the Vermont State
House for a proclamation signing and discussion of important issues
relative to women.
Two bills awaiting action in the Senate include provisions similar to
those enacted in Vermont. The ``Paycheck Fairness Act'', originally
introduced by Senator Clinton, of which I am an original cosponsor,
creates stronger incentives for employers to follow the law,
strengthens penalties for equal pay violations, and prohibits
retaliation against workers for disclosing their own wage information.
This bill passed the House with bipartisan support more than a year ago
and deserves action in the Senate. The ``Fair Pay Act'', introduced by
Senator Harkin--another bill that I cosponsor--requires employers to
pay equally for jobs of comparable skill, efforts and working
conditions and requires employers to disclose pay scales and rates for
all job categories at a given company. To effectively close the wage
gap we must address the systemic problems that are resulting in pay
disparities. I believe both these bills are essential steps to closing
the wage gap.
This is not a Democratic or Republican issue but an issue of inherent
fairness. Sadly, wage discrimination affects women of every generation
and every socioeconomic background and is not limited to one career
path or level of education. We should pass the ``Paycheck Fairness
Act'' and the ``Fair Pay Act'' and work toward other solutions to
ensure our daughters and granddaughters are not subject to the same
discrimination that has burdened American women for decades.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to bring attention to Equal
Pay Day. It is today, April 20, that represents how long women had to
work into 2010 to earn what men made in 2009. It is an unfortunate
occasion.
Women make this country run--we are business leaders, entrepreneurs,
politicians, mothers and more. But we earn just 78 cents for every
dollar our male counterpart makes. Women of color get paid even less.
As a U.S. Senator, I am fighting for jobs today and jobs tomorrow. I
am on the side of a fair economy and I am the side of good-guy
businesses. We need an economy that works for everyone.
I was proud to sponsor the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in the
Senate, and even prouder to stand next to President Obama as he signed
his first bill into law. This law overturns the Supreme Court's
decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. so that the laws
against pay discrimination apply to every paycheck or other
compensation a worker receives. This protects victims of discrimination
and allows them to file a lawsuit any time that they find they have
been treated unfairly.
But more needs to be done. The next step is the Paycheck Fairness
Act. This bill will help close the wage gap between men and women. It
will help empower women to negotiate for equal pay, create strong
incentives for employers to obey the laws already in place, and
strengthen enforcement.
It is time to recommit to closing the wage gap. From the day I first
entered Congress I have worked hard to guarantee equality to everyone
under the law. I firmly believe that all forms of discrimination should
be prohibited. I believe people should be judged by their individual
skills, competence, unique talents and nothing else. And once you get
that job because of your skills and talents you better get equal pay
for equal work. It is time to tell all of those who have suffered wage
discrimination--it is a new day.
Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, today Americans are observing Equal Pay
Day. It is the date that marks the 110 extra days that women must work
into 2010 in order to equal what men earned in 2009.
In 1963, responding to the fact that the 25 million female workers in
our workforce earned just 60 percent of the average pay for men,
Congress enacted the Equal Pay Act to end this brazen yet widely
tolerated discrimination.
Over the past 47 years, we have made progress towards the great goal
of equal pay for women. But, progress has been stalled in the last
decade. As we observe Equal Pay Day this year, it is a sad fact that
too many women in this country still do not get paid what men do for
the exact same work. On average, a woman makes only 77 cents for every
dollar that a man makes. The circumstances are even worse for Latinas
and women of color.
This is wrong and unjust. But, even more, it threatens the economic
security of our families. Millions of Americans are dependent on a
woman's paycheck just to get by, put food on the table, pay for child
care, and deal with rising health care bills. Two-thirds of mothers
bring home at least a quarter of their family's earnings. In many
families, the woman is the sole breadwinner. And, during the latest
economic downturn, more men have lost
[[Page S2471]]
jobs than women, making households even more dependent than ever on
women's earnings.
The fact is, America's women are working harder than ever, but they
are not being fairly compensated for their contributions to our
economy. On average, women lose an estimated $700,000 over their
lifetimes due to unequal pay practices, and this inequality means real
hardships for their families.
And, while many factors influence a worker's earnings--including
educational attainment, work experience, and family status--even when
controlling for many of these variables, a substantial portion of the
wage gap cannot be explained by anything but discrimination.
This issue is highlighted by the experience of Lilly Ledbetter. Over
nearly two decades of work, Lilly received performance awards and
outstanding reviews. Yet, late in her career, she learned, through an
anonymous note, that she had been paid significantly less than men in
the company doing the exact same job. When she sued, a jury reviewed
the evidence and concluded that she was paid less because of her
gender.
Outrageously, the Supreme Court reversed the jury's verdict. They
held that, even though Lilly's company, like so many others that
discriminate, do so covertly and do not reveal what male workers earn,
Lilly somehow should have known that she had been discriminated against
within 180 days of when she was hired. Because workers like Lilly do
not learn of pay inequities for years, the decision left no recourse
for her and for other victims of wage discrimination.
Largely because of Lilly's determination to win justice for women,
the first legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by
President Obama was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Very simply, this
law reversed the Court's severely flawed decision.
We celebrate enactment of this important law, but we must recognize
that it was only a first step. We need to do much more.
First, there are too many loopholes and too many barriers to
effective enforcement of existing laws. That is why I strongly support
the Paycheck Fairness Act. This bill--sponsored by Senator Dodd,
Senator Mikulski, and Representative Rosa DeLauro--would strengthen
penalties for discrimination and give women the tools they need to
identify and confront unfair treatment.
In January, the House of Representatives passed the bill
overwhelmingly on a bipartisan basis. And, last month, the Senate
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which I chair, held a
hearing on this long-overdue bill. I hope that the Senate can pass the
bill and send it to the President's desk this year.
In addition, we must recognize that the problem of unequal pay goes
beyond insidious discrimination. As a nation, we unjustly devalue jobs
traditionally performed by women, even when they require comparable
skills to jobs traditionally performed by men. Why is a housekeeper
worth less than a janitor? Why is a parking meter reader worth less
than an electrical meter reader? To address this more subtle
discrimination, last year on Equal Pay Day I introduced the Fair Pay
Act to ensure that employers provide equal pay for jobs that are
equivalent in skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions.
My bill would also require employers to publicly disclose their job
categories and their pay scales, without requiring specific information
on individual employees. Giving people better bargaining information in
the first place will help alleviate the need for costly litigation by
giving employees the leverage they need to have informed pay
discussions with their employers. Right now, women who suspect pay
discrimination must file a lawsuit and go through a drawn out legal
discovery process to find out whether they make less than the man
working beside them.
With pay statistics readily available, this expensive process could
be avoided. In fact, I asked Lilly Ledbetter: If the Fair Pay Act had
been law, would it have prevented her wage discrimination case? She
made clear that, if she had been aware of the information about pay
scales that the bill provides, she would have known she was a victim of
sex discrimination.
The Fair Pay Act removes many of the systematic barriers that lead to
unequal pay. We must act this year to pass this important legislation
to eliminate the longstanding biases that prevent America's women
workers from achieving true equality in the workplace.
On this Equal Pay Day, let us recommit ourselves to eliminating
discrimination in the workplace and ensuring that all Americans receive
equal pay for equal work. America's working women--and the families
that rely on them--deserve fairness on the job. And, let me be clear,
as chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, I
pledge to fight pay discrimination until we have achieved true equality
in the workplace and there is no longer a need to observe Equal Pay
Day.
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