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Ledbetter Bill Becomes Law
On January 29, 2009 President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law, making it the first legislation of his administration. The Act reverses the Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling in 2007 (Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.) and restores the ability of victims of wage discrimination to hold their employers accountable for injustice and challenge the practice in court. Lilly Ledbetter was with the President when he signed the bill. VIEW VIDEO from the signing
The Senate passed the bill January 22 by a vote of 61 to 36: VOTE TALLY
The House passed the bill January 27 by a vote of 250 to 177:
VOTE TALLY |
Urge your senators to support the Paycheck Fairness Act:
The House passed the Paycheck Fairness Act to strengthen enforcement
of the Equal Pay Act on January 9, 2009. Please urge your senators to support S.182. The Paycheck Fairness
Act would ensure effective remedies for wage discrimination
and make it easier to sue on behalf of groups of women.
Read NCPE's Feb. 23, 2009 letter to senators urging quick action on the Paycheck Fairness Act (S.182).
Join
the Fair Pay Campaign to support pay equity 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. |
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Michele Leber, NCPE chair, debates
USA Today about the wage gap:
Old
attitudes die hard: Discrimination prevents women
from getting salaries they deserve
...written
in response to USA Today's opinion piece Why
women earn less: Career choices, business ventures
are bigger factors than gender bias |
| Photos from the 2008 Equal Pay Day press conference on Capitol Hill |
Census statistics released on Women's Equality Day--August 26, 2008--show that the gap between men's and women's earnings changed by less than one percent from 2006 to 2007, narrowing only slightly from 76.9 to 77.8 percent. Based on the median earnings of full-time, year-round workers, women's earnings were $35,102, and
men's earnings were $45,113. Median earnings for women of color are generally even lower, and all showed percentage drops in the last year. In 2007, the earnings for African American women were $31,009, 68.7 percent of men's earnings, a drop of more than 3 percent; Asian American women's earnings were $40,374, 89.5 percent of men's earnings, a drop of 3.5 percent; and Latinas earnings were $26,612, 59 percent of men's, a drop of .6 percent. NCPE's The Wage Gap Over Time table shows how little the wage gap has changed in the last seven years. |
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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. |
 If
we didn't have a wage gap, we wouldn't need this coupon! |
| NCPE's
COUPON was featured in Jan-Feb 2005 Making
Bread Magazine ("Female Finance" column
on pages 20-23)! |
| Updated
June 3, 2009 website by Swerdloff Digital Design |
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