[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 872-873]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            ANNIVERSARY OF THE LILLY LEDBETTER FAIR PAY ACT

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, today I wish to recognize the 
anniversary of the signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
  Lilly Ledbetter is an inspiring woman and a courageous trailblazer.

[[Page 873]]

She fought the system in her workplace and the courtroom. She was a 
longstanding and loyal employee at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company 
for 19 years. But then she found out that Goodyear thought she was 
worth less than her male counterparts. A jury found Goodyear owed her 
almost $400,000 in backpay, but the Supreme Court said that she was too 
late. When Justice Ginsburg read her dissent from the bench, she called 
for Congress to fix it, so we went to work.
  It has been over 7 years since we passed this historic legislation. I 
was so proud to lead the charge in the Senate to keep the courthouse 
doors open to sue for discrimination. This wasn't an easy road. When we 
lost the first vote on this bill, I called upon the women in the Senate 
and across America to put their lipstick on, square their shoulders, 
and suit up to fight for an American revolution.
  We did just that, and the Lilly Ledbetter Act became the first bill 
that President Obama signed into law in 2009.
  Passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was a big accomplishment--
but our work is far from done. We need to finish what we started by 
passing the Paycheck Fairness Act. The Lilly Ledbetter Act kept the 
courthouse door open, but the Paycheck Fairness Act will make it more 
difficult to discriminate in the first place.
  Women are tired of being paid crumbs. Women still only make 79 cents 
for every dollar a man makes, and it is even worse for women of color--
African-American women earn 62 cents on the dollar, and Hispanic women 
earn 54 cents. By retirement, the average woman loses $431,000 to the 
pay gap. This affects Social Security, pensions, and retirement 
security. Everybody says, ``Oh you've come a long way,'' but women have 
only gained 20 cents in 50 years.
  We will not take no for an answer. We will continue to demand equal 
pay for all. We are going to change the Federal law books, so women get 
change in their family checkbooks.

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