[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8014]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1220
                         PAYCHECK FAIRNESS ACT

  (Mr. BARROW of Georgia asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BARROW of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, this is the 50th anniversary of 
the Equal Pay Act, and I rise to urge my colleagues to strengthen that 
law by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act.
  I'm a proud cosponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act because, even 
today, working women in my district in Georgia and across the country 
earn, on average, 77 cents for every dollar that men earn for the same 
work. That's because the penalties under the current law aren't strong 
enough to deter employers from breaking the law. And the current law 
doesn't protect employees from retaliation for sharing salary 
information with coworkers. The Paycheck Fairness Act will plug these 
loopholes in the law.
  Mr. Speaker, I'm proud to stand here today with so many of my 
colleagues to call for the passage of these long-overdue improvements 
in this landmark law. Every day we ignore the shortcomings of the law 
is another day we deny women their rights under the law, and that 
should end right now.

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