Paycheck Fairness Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I wanted to speak during general debate, but I will take this time to speak on behalf of this legislation and also to rise in support of the gentleman's amendment.

Mr. Chairman, the American people entrusted Democrats with the majority in part because we pledged to work hard on the issues they care about most, issues affecting their everyday lives.

I am the father of three daughters. They are all extraordinary people. I want them all treated based upon the content of their character, their performance, and the duties that they perform, not on the fact that they happen to be daughters and not sons.

One of the issues we pledged to address was raising wages, and that includes addressing the gender pay gap, which keeps women from earning their fair share and hurts families, children, and all people.

The last time I was the majority leader, which was from 2007 to 2011, we enacted the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to make it easier for women who have faced discriminatory pay and benefits to seek justice.

Lilly Ledbetter had worked hard, and she did not know that she was being paid less than her counterparts doing exactly the same thing she was doing, with exactly the same responsibility and exactly the same expectations. There was no justice in that, but she didn't know it. The Supreme Court said, well, you didn't raise the issue quickly enough.

We also passed the Paycheck Fairness Act in that same Congress, but, unfortunately, the Senate failed to enact it as well.

Now we return to this important work of ensuring equal pay for equal work. Who, intellectually, can oppose that concept? Who, with any sense of fairness and fair play, could oppose that concept and precept?

It is shameful, Mr. Chairman, that, in 2019, 56 years after President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, we are here fighting for equal pay. A half century later, women still earn, on average, 80 cents to a man's dollar, and, very frankly, minority women earn less than that. That gap is even worse for minorities. Two-thirds of women are now either the primary breadwinners or co-breadwinners in their households.

Make no mistake, this is an economic concern for families across our country. This is not a woman's issue. It is a fairness issue. It is an every family, every person issue.

Democrats ran on a platform of raising wages, as I said. We are focused on making sure that more working families can make it in America. That is what this bill will help achieve.

I am proud that every member of the Democratic Caucus--let me repeat that, every member--234 members of the Democratic Caucus have signed on as cosponsors of this bill because we believe it is fair; because we believe it is right; because we believe it is good for families; and, yes, because we believe it is good for the American economy.

Rosa DeLauro is on the floor, and I want to thank the gentlewoman. We hear the phrase, ``Keep the faith.'' Rosa DeLauro has kept the faith year after year, not only with women of America, but with the families and children of America who rely on women's wages for the quality of their lives, and their partners', and their spouses'.

I thank the gentlewoman, Rosa DeLauro, for all that she has done for our country in keeping the faith.

I also thank my dear friend and my colleague from my neighboring State of Virginia, Chairman Bobby Scott, for his faithfulness, for his focus, and for his bringing this bill to the floor so early in our session.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to observe April 2, which is Equal Pay Day. It is a day symbolizing how far into the year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year--essentially, 3 months of free labor. Not in this body, because we are all paid the same in this body. We comply with this bill. That is the good news.

The bad news is, women, on average, have to work not 12 months but 15 months to earn what men earn in 12 months. That is what that language meant.

I urge my colleagues to vote today to make this the last Equal Pay Day and pass this bill to ensure the promise of economic equality for all.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all--drop the ``men''-- that all are created equal. That view maybe self-evident, but it is not self-executing. Let us act upon it today.

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