U.S. Senate Votes to Close Wage Gap between Men and Women
June 4th, 2012
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote tomorrow on the Paycheck Fairness Act – a bill that could help close the wage gap between men and women and help middle class families. “In America today, women make up half of the workforce, and two-thirds of women are either the sole bread-winner or co-breadwinner in their family. And yet, right now in the 21st century, women make only 77 cents on the dollar as compared to men,” explained Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro who authored and introduced in the bill in the House of Representatives, where it has passed twice. Unmarried women earn only 57 cents for every dollar that married men earn. When women earn less, it hurts more than their pocketbook. It hurts our economy, our communities and their families who have to get by on less.
According to Congresswoman DeLauro, “Pay inequity is at the root of the financial pressures facing women today. It is critical that we pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, take the next steps to stop discrimination in the first place by putting an end to pay secrecy, strengthen workers’ ability to challenge discrimination, and bring the equal pay law into line with other civil rights laws.”
The Paycheck Fairness Act would hold employers accountable for pay discrepancies between their male and female employees while strengthening incentives to prevent pay discrimination. The legislation, along with the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which was the first piece of legislation signed into law by President Obama to allow more time for women to sue for pay disparity, will go a long way toward ending this type of discrimination in the workplace.
