Today is Equal Pay Day, a day for promoting and taking action on guaranteeing equal pay for equal work. Pretty simple concept: regardless of your gender, you should receive pay equal to that of anyone else doing the same work. A little background first, courtesy of the Department of Labor (the link has a lot more background, information and resources on the issue - please check it out):
When the Equal Pay Act was signed into law by President Kennedy in 1963, women were earning an average of 59 cents on the dollar compared to men. While women hold nearly half of today's jobs, and their earnings account for a significant portion of the household income that sustains the financial well-being of their families, they are still experiencing a gap in pay compared to men's wages for similar work. Today, women earn about 81 cents on the dollar compared to men — a gap that results in hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost wages. For African-American women and Latinas, the pay gap is even greater.
Each year, National Equal Pay Day reflects how far into the current year women must work to match what men earned in the previous year. On National Equal Pay Day, we rededicate ourselves to carrying forward the fight for true economic equality for all. (our emphasis)As you might suspect, Democrats get it, hence the proposed "Paycheck Fairness Act" and executive actions President Obama announced today:
President Barack Obama is marking Equal Pay Day by announcing two executive orders strengthening equal pay protections at federal contractors. One of the orders will prohibit employer retaliation against workers who inquire about or share pay information, making it easier for women to find out if they are being discriminated against, and the other will call for the Labor Department to collect pay information from federal contractors, with the data including race and gender to make it easier to identify employers who discriminate.The
Republicans are mounting a counteroffensive against Equal Pay Day, the Paycheck Fairness Act, and indeed the very notion that equal pay is a serious issue. Since you can't straight-up admit to opposing equal pay, the substance of the Republican counteroffensive is essentially this: We support equal pay. Just not any efforts to actually make it a reality. (our emphasis)And what does Senate Republican Minority Leader and chinless wonder Mitch "Missy" McConnell call equal pay for equal work?
"Instead of focusing on jobs, [Reid] launched into another confusing attack on the left's latest bizarre obsession," McConnell said, adding that Reid was refusing to entertain GOP suggestions on the economy. "Democrats chose to ignore serious job-creation ideas so they could blow a few kisses to their powerful pals on the left." (our emphasis)And did the
"Many ladies I know feel like they are being used as pawns, and find it condescending [that] Democrats are trying to use this issue as a political distraction from the failures of their economic policy," Jenkins said. (our emphasis)And that Republican front group "Independent [snicker] Women's Forum" says what?
And talking about unequal pay is bad because, in the words of Sabrina Schaeffer of the Independent Women's Forum, "Perpetuating the myth that women are a victim class harms women and makes them feel weak." Heavens, no. Women are empowered by their lack of economic power, I suppose. (our emphasis)Sisterhood! Solidarity forever!
We haven't seen so much embarrassing flat-footedness since Tom "The Hammer" DeLay was on "Dancing With The Stars."
The issue has been laid out in stark terms. The government can and should act. The only question remaining is "Whose side are you on?"
Not surprisingly, with their long history of looking out for reactionary bidness interests, maintaining socially regressive =cough= fundamentalist = cough= policies, and disenfranchising non-Republican voting blocs, we see Republicans once again on the wrong side of history.
Oh, and how's that Republican rebranding coming along?
UPDATE: Also "Hummina, hummina, hummina."
UPDATE II: We're shocked! Shocked! Senate Republicans block the Paycheck Fairness Act from proceeding.
