WUNRN
American Lilly Ledbetter took a stand when she learned that
she’d long been receiving a lower salary than her male counterparts were. She
brought her pay discrimination case to the Supreme Court and to Congress, and
her story spurred on the movement for equal pay. This year her 77th birthday,
on April 14, falls on Equal Pay Day — the symbolic day when women’s earnings
finally catch up to men’s earnings from the previous year. The very latest
figures show that women are paid on average 78 cents to the dollar paid to
their male peers. That’s just a penny more than where the statistic has been
stuck for a decade.
http://salsa4.salsalabs.com/o/50796/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=13399&killorg=True
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilly_Ledbetter
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USA - Paycheck Fairness Act Reintroduced to End Gender
Wage Discrimination
WASHINGTON, DC –Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and
Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) today reintroduced the Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation which
would help close the wage gap between women and men working the same jobs. On
average, women make just 78 cents for every dollar made by a man.
“Equal pay is not just a problem for women, but for families, who are trying to
pay their bills, trying to get ahead, trying to achieve the American Dream, and
are getting a smaller paycheck than they have earned for their hard work,” DeLauro
said. “The Paycheck Fairness Act will help the Equal Pay Act
fulfill its intended objective, offer real protections to ensure equal pay for
equal work, and see that women are paid the same as the other half of our
nation’s workforce for the same job.”
“Middle class families need a raise and more money in the family checkbook.
Five years ago we made a down payment towards equal pay passing the Lilly
Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to keep the courthouse doors open. I’m fighting to
finish the job and stop wage discrimination from happening in the first place,”
said Mikulski, a senior member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor
and Pension (HELP) Committee. “Equal pay is not just for our pocketbooks, it’s
about family checkbooks and getting it right in the law books. The Paycheck
Fairness Act ensures that women will no longer be fighting on their own for
equal pay for equal work.”
The Paycheck Fairness Act builds upon the landmark Equal Pay Act
signed into law in 1963 by closing loopholes that have kept it from achieving
its goal of equal pay. The bill would require employers to show pay disparity
is truly related to job-performance, not gender.
It also prohibits employer retaliation for sharing salary information with
coworkers. Under current law employers can sue and punish employees for sharing
such information. In addition, it strengthens remedies for pay discrimination
by increasing compensation women can seek, allowing them to seek both back pay
and punitive damages for pay discrimination.
The bill empowers women in the workplace through a grant program to strengthen
salary negotiation and other workplace skills, and requires the Department of
Labor to enhance outreach and training efforts to eliminate pay disparities.
President Obama’s first bill, signed into law on January 29, 2009, was the Lilly
Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which overturned the 180-day statute of limitations
for women to contest pay discrimination. The Paycheck Fairness Act would
close the loopholes that allow pay discrimination to continue in the first
place and, with Ledbetter, provide employees the rights they need to challenge
and eliminate pay discrimination in the workplace.
The bill has been endorsed by President Obama, Lilly Ledbetter and a coalition
of over 300 advocacy groups.
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