On Ledbetter Anniversary, Paycheck Fairness Act Gets Attention
I think I owe you some good news. Don’t you? Well here it is. I just got off a conference call with Senator Dodd, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Marcia Greenberger, Co-President of the National Women’s Law Center, and Lilly Ledbetter. Senator Dodd announced he has support from Senator Tom Harkin, Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to start hearings on the Paycheck Fairness Act.
As you may know, this week is the one year anniversary of President Obama signing the Lilly Ledbetter Act into law. The Ledbetter law gives employees a longer window to file discrimination claims. It is an important piece of legislation, but as Ledbetter said on the call, “The work is far from done.”
The Paycheck Fairness Act will strengthen the Ledbetter Act. One of the most important aspects of the bill is it will prohibit retaliation against employees who ask about or disclose their wages. Said Ledbetter, “This would have been particularly helpful to me. This policy delayed my discovery (that she was being paid less than her male peers) by decades.”
The House passed the Paycheck Fairness legislation in July 2008 but the Senate has not yet acted on it. Hearings are just the start of the process – a bill would hopefully follow and then Dodd would seek floor time in the spring. It is encouraging to hear there is movement on this legislation.
Unfortunately since the passage of the Ledbetter Act, the wage gap has increased not decreased. We need to keep working for equal pay and support the efforts of Dodd and DeLauro. As Rep. DeLauro said this morning, “This is not about women. This is about families.” If female breadwinners are bringing home less money than they deserve, entire families are shortchanged.
Click here to send a message to your Senators that we need fair pay. I will certainly be sending a message to my new Senator.
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