It's no surprise a pay equity bill got voted down yesterday. Women wanting equal pay is now seen as just an obsession, like needing a new pair of stilettos.
A Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this week bashed the Paycheck Fairness Act that could not overcome a Republic filibuster yesterday, calling the drive to ensure equal pay for equal work an "obsession" and not grounded in reality. Women don't make less because of discrimination, the author contends. It's all about the choices we gals make - you know, asking for flexible hours or taking time off to birth babies. The author didn't mention the fact that more than 60 percent of women in the workplace are not even parents.
Clearly, quite a few senators, including two prominent female politicians, Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME), also thought the movement for pay equity is just the latest female fetish and shouldn't be taken seriously, voting against the bill 58-41. The bill had already passed in the House.
The Act, which was introduced in January 2009 by then Sen. Hillary Clinton and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) to amend the Equal Pay Act of 1963, would have given enforcement teeth to existing laws that have done little to shrink the pay gap between men and women, which the Department of Labor says is 23 cents on the dollar.
One key part of the legislation, which would have made it easier for employees to sue their employers for pay bias and lifted damages' caps, was prohibiting retaliation against workers who inquired about pay inequities or who disclosed their wages in order to figure out if their paychecks were thinner.
The gender pay gap shouldn't just be seen as merely a female fixation, especially in this economy. Since men have been hardest hit in this recession as far as job loss, the fact that their wives or girlfriends make 77 cents on the dollar to men suddenly hits the guys too.
"Today's vote will cost America's women fair wages, and cost its families the economic security they urgently need," said Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families in an emailed statement.
Indeed, the anemic economy may explain why complaints about gender-based wage discrimination have jumped 30 percent in the last three years, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Even without the act, the willingness by women to file charges; grass-root equal pay efforts; and an Obama labor department that has awakened after a long slumber under President Bush has spooked businesses. Already, HR managers are running scared, auditing the pay structures at their companies; and one told me last week she was surprised at the disparities she found.
And it sounds like there are no plans to turn down the enforcement heat because of today's vote. In a statement President Obama said: "my Administration will continue to fight for a woman's right to equal pay for equal work."
Obsession or not, women need to be paid fairly. If it's not enough to ensure such equity on moral grounds, then think about it as shoe money.
Follow Eve Tahmincioglu on Twitter: www.twitter.com/careerdiva
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Wendy's restaurants, according to opensecrets.org their PACS have given money to conservatives for years and they operate out of Ohio the state where John Boehner the new speaker resides.
JM Smuckers Co. the maker of Peanut butter and Preserves who also according to opensecrets.org their PACS have given money to conservatives for years and they operate out of Ohio once again the state where the new speaker John Boehner resides.
Brown Forman Corporation of Kentucky the distributor of Jack Daniels Whiskey and Southern Comfort Liquor according to opensecrets.org their PACS have given money to conservatives over the years including Mitch McConnell who resides in Kentucky.
Have many people call, email, fax telling their CEO that we and our family REFUSE to do business with your company because you give money to conservatives in congress and we will only do business until you speak to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell to pass a clean version of the paycheck fairness act and also an extension of unemployment benefits.
You will make them capitulate as fast as MSNBC capitulated in 5 days when 300,000 people forced MSNBC to get Keith Olbermann back on the air because they threatened to boycott MSNBC and their sponsors.
See more actions at www.democratz.org
As for adding men to the impact, pay inequity hurts not just women, but men and our entire society. Women need to be paid what they're worth because it's the right thing to do for the greater good. We all suffer when someone is treated unjustly.
Women's pay-equity advocates support both the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act because of one overarching belief: that employers everywhere pay men more than women for the same work.
Yet these same advocates no doubt also support the Age Discrimination In Employment Act. Without it, they may argue, employers, who the advocates rightly say always seek the cheapest labor would replace their older employees with younger ones who will accept lower wages in the same jobs. But the advocates must think employers suddenly don't care about cheap labor when it comes to paying men more than women in the same jobs. In sum, the advocates believe employers would replace older workers with younger ones to save money, but will not replace men with women to save money.
See “A Male Matters Response to the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act” at http://tinyurl.com/pvbrcu
I believe in capitalism but not your version of cheap labor, laissez faire deathbringing capitalism revered by conservatives.