Call to Action on the Paycheck Fairness Act

By: Bryan Scrafford
Published On: 8/4/2008 11:58:54 AM

As Speaker Pelosi points out on her website, gender-based wage discrimination is taking place even though our country has made significant progress on the issue. She mentions how "women only make 77 cents for every dollar earned by a man" which can "cost women anywhere from $400,000 to $2 million over a lifetime in lost  wages." This is wrong and needs to be addressed. It is for that reason that Rep. Rosa DeLaura (D-CT) has introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act. Pelosi's website points out that in order to strengthen the Equal Pay Act and make it harder for employers to discriminate based upon gender, the Paycheck Fairness Act will do the following:
Requires that employers seeking to justify unequal pay bear the burden of proving that its actions are job-related and consistent with a business necessity.

Prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who share salary information with their co-workers.

Puts gender-based discrimination sanctions on equal footing with other forms of wage discrimination - such as discrimination based on race, disability or age - by allowing women to sue for compensatory and punitive damages.

Requires the Department of Labor to enhance outreach and training efforts to work with employers in order to eliminate pay disparities.

Requires the Department of Labor to continue to collect and disseminate wage information based on gender.

Creates a new grant program to help strengthen the negotiation skills of girls and women.

So you might be wondering why a male blogger is promoting this legislation. The reasoning behind that is plain and simple. Gender discrimination is wrong and has no place in our society. Furthermore, I believe that anytime there is discrimination it has a negative impact on our community as a whole. It's for those reasons and others that I believe everyone should rally behind the Paycheck Fairness Act.

The bill passed the House on July 31 by a margin of 247-178, but since the Senate is now on recess the bill's future schedule isn't set in concrete. So while the Senate is out on their August break, people should call into their Senators' office and let their staff know that this is an important issue and should be addressed ASAP. You might also want to get in touch with the leadership of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. The more people who call in and tell the Senate to take action, the better chance there is that this bill will be addressed once the Senate returns.

Comments



men and women: wages and labor force participation (loboforestal - 8/4/2008 4:03:08 PM)
The M/F wage gap is often explained by F labor force participation : Recent Trends and Current Sources of the Gender Wage Gap in the U.S.
(June O'Neill * Department of Economics and
Center for the Study of Business and Government,
Baruch College, City University of New York
June, 2003

Analysis of data from the NLSY show that the gross log wage differential in 2000
was 0.246, corresponding to a wage ratio of 78.2%. Years of schooling and scores on the
AFQT explain little of the differential. But actual work experience accounts for up to half
of the wage gap, depending on the model. When child-related, occupational and workplace
characteristics are included along with human capital variables, the unexplained
gap is reduced to 0.05 and adding the percent female in the occupation further reduces the
gap to 0.025. Separate analysis of the NLSY cohort by education reveals that the gender
gap in work experience accounts for a particularly large share of the high school wage
gap. At the high school level the wage gap falls to 3% accounting only for work
experience and other human capital variables; it is eliminated when occupational
characteristics and a variable measuring the %female in the occupation are added. The
unadjusted wage gap is larger for college graduates than it is at the high school level.
Field of college major-a harbinger of occupational choice--accounts for a significant
share of the gap. The residual gap is about 6 percentage points when both field of college
major and occupational characteristics are included. I conclude that the unadjusted gender
gap can be explained to a large extent by non-discriminatory factors. Those factors seem
rooted in the role differential between women and men in the home.

Don't get too mad at me; several economists, including a feminist, pointed this out to me.  An effect of such legislation might just be more lawsuits and red tape and no real progress.  

For most people, the playing field is level; it's the choices they make that determine their wages. I don't doubt that some women are discriminated against; but it's probably mostly at the highest levels [ no academic citations, sorry ].  Sadly, like much recent legislation, such laws will be used to suppress wages for lower class men so that smug people with advanced degrees can feel good about themselves.

Class issues of families struggling should be the priority for action.   The middle class squeeze is real and families are hurting.  Subsidizing the mortgage banks and the government's $500 coupons redeemable at Wal-Mart aren't the answer.  



What Really is Needed is a Comparable Wage Law (Matt H - 8/7/2008 10:10:16 AM)
Comparable wage laws are enacted in progressive European counties where the gender wage gaps are negligible.

All wages are more or less based on the value to society of any type of work.  Fields of work that generally attract one gender have their wages compared to the wages of a comparable field of work done mostly by the other gender.  An example may be paying firefighters a wage that's similar to a nurse.

The problem is that here in America, not only does the good old boys network continue to prosper, but workplace sexism is tolerated.  As a Union lawyer I see this b.s. daily.  Perhaps women should call for a day of action and not show up for work, and we will all get a reality check on the value of their work.