Paycheck Fairness Act

PAYCHECK FAIRNESS ACT -- (House of Representatives - July 31, 2008)

Ms. DeLAURO. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

I want to thank Chairman George Miller for his dedication to this cause. We never could have come this far without his tenacious leadership.

We are grateful, Chairman Miller.

Mr. Chairman, the Paycheck Fairness Act is about valuing the work that women do in our society. One of our Nation's most enduring principles, one of our greatest aspirations, has been ensuring equality of opportunity for all. There is no more important American promise that allows us to be a country of dreams and of success, and today we can take another important step toward finally honoring that promise.

I want to thank Speaker Pelosi, whose leadership today continues to build on the legacy of those who preceded us, those pioneers at Seneca Falls as well as the women who blazed a path in the House of Representatives, Jeanette Rankin, Mary Norton. Even President Kennedy's Equal Pay Act grew out of the Commission on the Status of Women led by Eleanor Roosevelt. Forty-five years later our Speaker has celebrated that history by making this movement an absolute priority. Her message has been clear: It is time to stand up for working women and their families.

Well, Mr. Chairman, we can do that today by supporting the Paycheck Fairness Act, reasserting the principle that women and men should be paid the same when doing the same work and making it real by allowing female employees to sue for compensatory and punitive damages. It does so without imposing the arbitrary caps women face under title VII. It protects employees from retaliation for sharing information with their coworkers about their salary, with some exceptions. And it establishes a grant initiative to provide negotiation skills training programs for girls and women.

Some will have you believe that the wage gap for women is a myth, that we already have laws in place to make discrimination on the basis of gender illegal. But just because something is illegal does not mean that it does not continue to happen. According to the Department of Labor, women still earn only 77 percent of what men earn.

Opponents insist that this figure does not take into account education and experience. But the truth is the gap barely closes among women with college degrees. Recent research by the American Association of University Women found that just one year after college graduation, women earn only 80 percent of what their male counterparts earn. Ten years after college graduation, women fall further behind, earning only 69 percent of what men earn. So what is the message? No matter how advanced their degree or how hard they work, women will not be compensated fairly.

The marketplace alone will not correct this injustice. We need a solution in law, just as our country has done in the past to bring down discriminatory barriers. Others will insist that we cannot open the door for increased litigation, but in the light of day, it is clear that the current system is rife with loopholes that have allowed employers to avoid responsibility for discriminatory pay scales.

We all know Lilly Ledbetter's story. For so many years she was shortchanged by her employer. And years later she was shortchanged again by the Supreme Court ruling of 5-4 against her discrimination claim, drastically limiting women's access to seek justice for pay discrimination based on gender.

We have an obligation to ensure that this does not go on any longer, and we must begin today by toughening remedies in the Equal Pay Act to give America's working women the opportunity to fight against wage discrimination and receive the paycheck they have earned. No one should be forced to consider a trade-off between a full wage, a family life, and a good job.

My colleagues on both sides of the aisle, we are so fortunate to come to work every day in this extraordinary institution. We are blessed. Different regions of the country we come from, different backgrounds, and different experiences. We are men and we are women and we are paid equally. Every woman in this country deserves the same. Every family deserves to know that this institution will act today to make it real.

It is about ensuring that women who work hard and productively and carry a full range of family responsibilities are paid at a rate they are entitled.

I urge my colleagues to support the Paycheck Fairness Act. We should not underestimate the power of a big idea whose time has come.

So many employers and companies do the right thing as a matter of course, but passing this bill today says that this is now a matter of right and wrong, that discrimination is unacceptable anywhere, and we are all diminished when we fall short. But today we have a chance to make all men and women whole and contribute to the richness of America.

In 1963 President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act, saying that it would ``add to our laws another structure basic to democracy'' and ``affirm our determination that when women enter the labor force, they will find equality in their pay envelope.''

Today we have another opportunity to make good on that promise. Those days come only few times in our tenure in the United States Congress.

I have always been proud to serve in this institution, and I revere those lawmakers before us who on previous days took a stand for health care for the elderly or the Civil Rights Act or Family and Medical Leave and made such an impact on people's lives. They changed people's lives. That is the whole reason why we serve in this institution.

It is my hope today that the House of Representatives passes this law and makes history for our country.

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