DELAURO, LILLY LEDBETTER FIGHT FOR PAYCHECK FAIRNESS LEGISLATION
Washington, DC – Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3) was joined by Lilly Ledbetter and Theresa Younger, today for a panel discussion at the New Haven Graduate Club, calling for action on the Paycheck Fairness Act. First introduced by Congresswoman DeLauro in 1997, the bill strengthens the Equal Pay Act and ensures that woman like Lilly, and hardworking Americans across the country are able to fight pay discrimination in the workplace.
Lilly Ledbetter has fought to end pay discrimination against women after years of receiving less pay than her male counterparts while doing the same job. After her case was defeated by the Supreme Court in May 2007, Congress enacted the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to nullify this result and took a step towards rectifying continuing pay discrimination in America.
The Ledbetter bill was a step in the right direction in ensuring that our nation’s workers are paid equally for their work, it simply returned us to where we were before the Supreme Court decision. But it is not enough, and we must break new ground by passing the Paycheck Fairness Act. Lilly Ledbetter is continuing her fight to ensure the rights of our nation’s workforce, and supports this legislation-- which has been passed twice by the House of Representatives and now awaits action in the Senate. With Equal Pay Day being celebrated last week, now is the time for the Senate to move on this legislation.
Congresswoman DeLauro said, “In America today, women now make up half of the workforce, and two-thirds of women are either the sole breadwinner or co-breadwinner in their family. And yet, women are still only being paid 78 cents on the dollar as compared to men. Such a disparity has a substantial long term impact on women, costing anywhere from $400,000 to $2 million over a lifetime. And with more women forced to take on the full burden of keeping their families afloat, the problem of women earning smaller paychecks for no good reason becomes even more acute for the entire family.
“We have already passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which ensured that women who are discriminated against have the right to sue as long as their unequal pay continues. The Paycheck Fairness Act is the next step in this fight, would ensure that employers who try to justify paying a man more than a woman prove it is not sex-based, but job related and necessary. It also would prohibit employers from retaliating against employees who discuss or disclose salary information with their co-workers, and it would strengthen the available remedies to include punitive and compensatory damages, thus bringing equal pay law into line with all other civil rights law.
“And on behalf of all of America’s women, I strongly encourage my colleagues in the Senate to take action and at last make this bill law.”
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Lilly Ledbetter is a national figure who has fought to end pay discrimination against women after years of receiving less pay than her male counterparts while doing the same job. She brought her case all the way to the Supreme Court, only to lose the final decision by a vote of 5-4 in May 2007. Congress enacted the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to nullify this result and took a step towards rectifying continuing pay discrimination in America. But while the Ledbetter bill was a good step in the right direction, it only returned us to where we were before the Supreme Court decision. It is not enough to ensure that our nation’s workers are paid equally.
To break new ground on this issue, we need to strengthen the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA). The Paycheck Fairness Act, first introduced by Congresswoman DeLauro in 1997, would do just that. It would give teeth to the EPA and ensure that women like Lilly have a chance to fight sex discrimination in the workplace. The Paycheck Fairness Act has been passed twice by the House of Representatives, and awaits action in the Senate. With Equal Pay Day being celebrated last week, now is the time for the Senate to move on this legislation.
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