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House
passes Paycheck Fairness Act |
LEGISLATIVE
UPDATE: JULY 31, 2008
By
a vote of 247 to 178, the House passed the Paycheck
Fairness Act on July 31. The credit for this victory
for working women goes in large part to Rep. Rosa
DeLauro (D-CT), who has sponsored the bill since
its introduction in 1997 and has been untiring
in her support of it.
>> Information
and roll call
>> NCPE
letter to House in support of Paycheck Fairness
Act (7/30/08) |
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Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
Senate Republicans
blocked action on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay
Act on April 23, 2008. By a 56 to 42 vote--with
all Senate Democrats and six Republicans in support--the
measure fell short of the 60 votes needed to begin
consideration of the bill. The Senate previously
drafted the Fair Pay Restoration Act in response
to the Supreme Court's ruling in Ledbetter v.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, which held
that employees must sue for pay discrimination
within the current 180-day statute of limitations.
The Senate now is acting on the same bill passed
by the House in July 2007, which defines each
discriminatory paycheck as starting the 180-day
limit.
The Senate Committee
on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held
a hearing on January 24, 2008 on the bill.
>> About
the hearing
Supporters
are contacting Senators who didn't vote for the
bill from the following states: Alabama, Alaska,
Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Florida, Nebraska, New
Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia.
Nonresidents of those states may forward
this eCard to friends, family, and contacts
who do.
Join
the Fair Pay Campaign to support this legislation.
The Fair Pay Campaign is
led by the American Association of University
Women, the Feminist Majority Foundation, Legal
Momentum, the National Organization for Women,
the National Partnership for Women and Families,
and the National Women's Law Center, with 250
other local, state, and national groups -- including
NCPE -- joining them.
- National Women's Law Center
Co-President Marcia Greenberger told CNBC why
the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is good for
business. Watch
the video.
- Sen. Ted Kennedy appeared
alongside Lilly Ledbetter on CNN to discuss
the importance of the bill. Watch
the video.
- Marcia Greenberger spoke
with Diane Rehm about pay discrimination. Listen
to the broadcast.
- The
Washington Post and New
York Times both came out with editorials
in support of the Fair Pay Act.
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Michele Leber, NCPE chair, debates
USA Today about the wage gap:
written
in response to USA Today's opinion piece Why
women earn less: Career choices, business ventures
are bigger factors than gender bias |
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Census
statistics show wage gap unchanged: Women's earnings
in 2006 were 76.9% of men's, leaving the wage gap
statistically unchanged from last year, according
to US Census statistics released in August 2007. Based
on the median earnings of full-time, year-round workers,
women's earnings were $32,515 and men's earnings
were $42,261. Median earnings for women of color continue
to be lower, in general, than earnings for men as a
whole. In 2006, the earnings for African American women
were $30,352, 71.8% of men's earnings, and for Latinas
$25,198, 59.6% of men's, both slight gains; Asian American
women's earnings were $39,313, 93.0% of men's, an increase from
last year. NCPE's Wage
Gap Over Time table shows that the wage gap has
remained static since the turn of the century. |
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Photos
from the Equal Pay Day 2007 rally on Capitol Hill
On Equal Pay Day 2007, ABC
World News reported on the wage gap.
>> Read ABC News report, "Take
Control: How to Negotiate Your Salary"
>> Watch video of ABC News report,
"Why
are women earning less?" |
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BEHIND THE PAY GAP
Pay gap exists as early as one year out of college,
says April 2007 AAUW research report.
>> Read
press release
>> Download
report (pdf) |
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Congress holds hearings on two
bills aimed at curbing wage discrimination:
NCPE organizational members request
Congressional support of pay equity legislation.
>>
Letter to Members of Congress (pdf) |
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WAGE:
Women
Are Getting
Even
WAGE Clubs:
Nationwide grassroots
movement to close the wage gap
On Equal
Pay Day, April 25, 2006 NCPE -- in collaboration
with Business and Professional Women/USA (BPW/USA);
the WAGE Project, a new grassroots organization
dedicated to closing the wage gap, and other leading
national organizations -- announced at a press
conference at the National Press Club in Washington,
DC a new nationwide grassroots movement designed
to close the wage gap once and for all.
Through this movement, WAGE
Clubs are forming throughout the country to mobilize
groups of women to talk about the wage gap and
to obtain the tools, support and momentum they
need to get even at work.
The wage gap costs the average
American full-time woman worker between $700,000
and $2 million over the course of her lifetime,
according to economist Evelyn Murphy, president
of the WAGE Project.
Speakers at the press conference,
who discussed the current status of federal equal
pay legislation and the need for multiple approaches
to this long-standing problem, included members
of Congress: Senator Tom Harkin, Representative
Rosa DeLauro, and Representative Eleanor Holmes
Norton; Michele Leber, Chair, NCPE; Roslyn Ridgeway,
President, BPW/USA; Evelyn Murphy, and Annie Houle,
Founder, The Maine WAGE Project.
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| The
Department of Labor has abolished
its Equal Pay Matters Initiative, removed all information
about narrowing the wage gap from its Web site, refused
to use available tools to identify violations of equal
pay laws, and adopted regulations that deprive millions
of women of the right to overtime pay. The Department
seeks to abolish the Equal Opportunity Survey required
of federal contractors. |
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Important first steps to making
pay equity a reality include:
- Strengthening enforcement
of the Equal Pay Act by enacting the provisions of
the Paycheck Fairness Act, sponsored by Sen. Hillary
Clinton and Del. Rosa DeLauro. The Paycheck Fairness
Act would ensure effective remedies for wage discrimination
and make it easier to sue on behalf of groups of women.
- Passing the Fair Pay Act, sponsored
by Sen. Tom Harkin and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton,
which would address the persistent problem of paying
lower wages in fields dominated by women and people
of color.
|
 If
we didn't have a wage gap, we wouldn't need this coupon! |
| NCPE's
23% OFF COUPON was featured in Jan-Feb 2005 Making
Bread Magazine ("Female Finance" column
on pages 20-23)! |
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website: Swerdloff Digital Design |
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