Conference Call on Fair Pay Legislation

Interview

CONFERENCE CALL ON FAIR PAY LEGISLATION

MR. HENDERSON: Good morning. I'm Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the nation's oldest, largest and most diverse civil and human rights coalition.

I'm here today with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Representatives George Miller and Rosa DeLauro, National Women's Law Center Co-president Marcia Greenberger and Supreme Court plaintiff Lilly Ledbetter to emphasize the critical importance of passing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act as soon as possible.

The Ledbetter bill will restore the long-standing rule recognizing each and every discriminatory paycheck as a seperate act of discrimination that can be challenged. Lilly Ledbetter is the woman for whom the case and bill are named, but this is bigger than one woman or one worker. This is a civil rights issue. Ms. Ledbetter's courage and persistence will make the workplace more fair, whether it's a factory floor or a boardroom.

The Paycheck Fairness Act will strengthen the Equal Pay Act by, among other things, giving women access to full and fair remedies for pay discrimination. It will also ban employers from retaliating against workers who discuss their salaries with one another. This is a matter of fairness and simple justice. American workers need to know that they will be treated fairly and equitably, especially in these trying economic times.

It is in Congress's power to pass this legislation quickly and put it on the desk of President-elect Obama, who has expressed his support.

In the case of Ledbetter, to leave the high court ruling in place means that women, people of color, older Americans and people with disabilities will have an even more difficult time proving pay discrimination.

As Justice Ginsburg pointed out, in her dissent in Ledbetter, Congress has stepped in on other occasions to correct the court's cramped interpretation of Title VII. This is such an occasion. And now I have the pleasure to turn the mike over to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Madame Speaker.

SPEAKER PELOSI: Thank you very much, Wade, for your comments this morning and for your tremendous leadership on issues relating to ending discrimination in all forms in our country. It's an honor to be on the call with you and with Lilly Ledbetter, of course, our heroine.

I want to commend Chairman George Miller, for being a champion on this issue, and Congresswoman DeLauro, for whom the word relentless and persistent are lacking to describe her enthusiasm for this legislation and her effectiveness.

And Marcia Greenberger, thank you for all the work that you have done, outside the Congress, and how instrumental you have been for progress for women.

Wade has very clearly gone through what this legislation will do. I just want to identify myself with those who call this very, very important legislation. That's why we're taking it up in the first week of the Congress.

It is of the highest priority to us. It is not only about what this means to women and their families. It's very important because of what it means to the economic security of our country.

Today, Congress will count the votes of the Electoral College to officially elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States. And then tomorrow, Congress will pass serious civil rights legislation that reaffirms our commitment to American equality.

I think that's a great week for Congress and a great week for the country. I'm now pleased to turn the phone over to Lilly Ledbetter, so that she can share her tremendously powerful story with you. I do so with enormous respect for her courage.

And we promise that we will make this happen, Lilly Ledbetter. Thank you.

MS. LEDBETTER: Thank you. Thank each one of you for listening to my story once again. I am sorry to say that I am a living example of the fact that pay discrimination continues to be a pervasive problem in the workplace today. But in addition, my case also illustrates the barriers that courts put in the way when workers try to vindicate their civil rights.

I began working as a supervisor in the Goodyear tire plant in Gadsden, Alabama, in 1979. I worked for Goodyear for almost 20 years. I worked hard and was good at my job. I was only one of a handful of women supervisors, and I faced obstacles and harassment that my male peers did not have to endure. Although I only found out later, I was also subjected to pay discrimination for virtually the whole time I worked at Goodyear.

When I first started, the managers got the same pay. But later they changed the pay system to be a -- based on performance, where people doing the same job could get paid differently. Like most employers, Goodyear knew all the facts. It knew who was making what. It made the decisions about how much to pay each manager.

But the workers didn't know. In fact, Goodyear prohibited us from discussing our salaries. I only started to get some hard evidence when someone left an anonymous note in my mailbox showing that I was getting paid between 15 and 40 percent less than my male peers. I thought about just moving on, but I just could not let Goodyear get away with discrimination. So I filed a complaint with the EEOC.

It wasn't until I filed my case that I finally was able to learn what Goodyear had known for years it was paying me a lot less than all of the males doing the same work. Goodyear claimed that it was because I was a poor performer. That wasn't true.

The jury didn't believe it; they found that Goodyear had violated Title VII and awarded me the money I was owed. But Goodyear appealed to the Eleventh Circuit, and then five justices of the Supreme Court ruled although -- that although I continued to be paid less than the men right up to the date I filed my charge, I had complained too late. According to these judges, any pay discrimination complaint -- (audio break) -- kinds of cases, not just pay discrimination cases.

And the Senate can restore the promise that the Supreme Court broke in my case by enacting the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a deal that simply restores the law to what it was before the court's decision.

My case is over, and I will never receive any pay that I deserve from Goodyear, but Congress will have the power to ensure that what happened to me doesn't happen to anyone else.

And I yield to Representative Miller.

REP. MILLER: Thank you very much, Lilly.

MS. LEDBETTER: Thank you, sir.

REP. MILLER: Thank you for again telling your story, a story that has not only moved the Congress to very swift action, the last Congress, but again in this Congress, and a story that has touched millions of Americans when they see the outrageous behavior of pay discrimination being allowed to continue because the court bars people from getting justice because of the decision they rendered against you, in spite of the fact that a jury found that you were the victim of discrimination.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act will remedy the decision by the court. It will make sure that those people who are discriminated in the workplace on the basis of -- on pay on the basis of gender will have the ability to recover. We will reinstitute the law as it was before the Supreme Court decision. The statute of limitations will stay in place, but it will continue the practice that every paycheck that is issued after the initial decision continues to be a discriminatory act against that individual.

Especially in this economy, when every dollar counts to families and to working individuals, it's important that we overturn the Supreme Court decision with the Ledbetter bill. This practice, just as it cost Lilly Ledbetter thousands and thousands of dollars, is costing women across this country millions and millions and millions of dollars. It's not only the lost pay, but it's been pointed out by the Leadership Conference, by the Women's Law Center, it also diminishes their Social Security, their pension benefit and makes their health care more expensive.

This practice has got to stop, and it's going to stop when the House and the Senate pass this legislation and send it to Senator -- (laughs) --ah, I love this -- President Obama, to sign this legislation and get rid of this incredible injustice against women in the workplace in this country. And when it happens, it'll happen because of the courage of Lilly Ledbetter.

We also understand that when women go to seek justice -- and again, and other workers -- on pay discrimination, that there are many bars to their recoveries of that. And Rosa DeLauro, my colleague in the Congress, with the Paycheck Fairness Act will remedy many of those injustices.

And I'd like now to yield to Rosa for a discussion of her legislation, that will also be considered by the House of Representatives tomorrow.

REP. DELAURO: Thank you so much, Chairman Miller. I wanted to say thank you to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the National Women's Law Center, for bringing us together this morning and making this call possible. To the speaker -- and I'm sure she's had to open the House this morning, but she has had such vision and leadership and has made pay equity a priority and given it the urgency that it deserves. And Chairman Miler, in his position, has taken the issue and made it a front-burner one and has been a tireless champion and a partner and an advocate for women in the workplace.

And Lilly, to you, as the speaker and Chairman Miller have pointed out, you inspire us to keep fighting. And I said this before: You are the wind beneath our wings on this issue, and we are -- our heart and our soul are with you in this effort and in what's been a difficult time for you as well.

And I'm proud that together with the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, that the Paycheck Fairness Act is among the first legislative proposals that the Congress has chosen to consider.

You know, our economy is in crisis. We understand that. We know that. And the effects of that economic crisis put so many women on the edge financially. It has had a tremendous and a greater impact and a more pointed impact on the economic security of women.

Just one or two facts is that one-third of women live in poverty; one-fifth of women are without health insurance; half of women are in jobs without retirement plans. Income for women-headed households between 2000 and 2006 are down 3 percent. Women are losing jobs at a faster rate tan men. And unmarried women, women who are single, widowed, divorced or separated, have an average household income almost $12,000 lower than unmarried men. And yet women still only earn 78 cents for every dollar that men earn.

The current law is rife with loopholes, which has allowed employers to avoid their responsibility for discriminating pay scales. For the first time since it was introduced in 1997, the House passed the Paycheck Fairness Act last summer, overwhelmingly, 247 to 178, with every single Democrat, and 14 Republicans crossing over to pass legislation.

We did it to make equal pay -- the Equal Pay Act a more effective tool in combatting gender-based pay discrimination.

It closes the loopholes, in the 45-year-old Equal Pay Act that have enabled employers to evade liability, stiffened penalties. And it will stiffen penalties for employers who discriminate based on gender. It protects employees from retaliation, for sharing salary information with their co-workers, with some exemptions.

It establishes a grant initiative to provide negotiation skills training programs for girls and women. And it comes up with concrete solutions to what is a real problem. We know Lilly's story. She repeated it again today. She was short-changed by her employer. And she was short-changed by the Supreme Court.

Had the Paycheck Fairness Act been the law of the land, Lilly Ledbetter would have had a much better opportunity, under a strengthened Equal Pay Act, to receive just compensation for the discrimination that she endured.

It is our moment to fight for economic freedom and eliminate the systemic discrimination faced by women workers. The House took that step last summer. And we are going to doing it again tomorrow.

What we need -- this is a transformational moment. And I know that we're calling on the Senate to act on both Lilly Ledbetter and the Paycheck Fairness Act. They can carry this momentum forward. They can take up both bills and they can give them the priority that they demand.

I believe, and this is my own personal view, to do anything less would be to shortchange women and families everywhere. It really is a time to finish what we've started, to ensure that women who work hard and productively and carry a full range of family responsibilities are paid at the rate that they are entitled.

We're all proud to serve, in this institution, and revere those lawmakers before us who on previous days took a stand for health care for the elderly, for civil rights, for family and medical leave, which have made such an impact on people's lives.

That's why we're here. That's what we're doing tomorrow. The House will act tomorrow. It's our hope that the Senate will follow suit and pass both Lilly Ledbetter, the Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. Let's make history for this country.

Thank you. And it's a pleasure to, you know, yield to someone again who, not just on these issues but a whole host of issues, has truly made a difference, in people's lives and women's lives and families' lives. Marcia Greenberger with the National Women's Law Center.

MS. GREENBERGER: Thank you, Congresswoman DeLauro, for your extraordinary leadership, and to Speaker Pelosi, to Chairman Miller and of course to Lilly Ledbetter.

As the last speaker, I just want to summarize very briefly some of the key points and just add a few additional facts, and then open it up for questions.

As was so movingly demonstrated by Lilly Ledbetter in her remarks and so eloquently underscored by those who spoke before me, now is the time to pass both the Lilly Ledbetter Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act. And it could not be more fitting or more appropriate that both of these provisions are given the support and the priority that they deserve. Not only is it a matter of basic fairness, a matter of economic justice, but a matter of economic urgency for women themselves and for the families that they support.

I want to just say a couple quick things. First of all, a recent news article pointed to 300 reported cases of other decisions where individuals lost their right to equal pay on the basis of gender, race, national origin, other forms of discrimination. The Ledbetter case was the cause. Similarly, the decision has undermined civil rights in housing, and in a host of other areas as well. That is the tip of the iceberg. There are countless more, more than we will ever know, victims of discrimination suffering today who went to lawyers for help and who were advised that, too bad, it's too late under this Supreme Court decision.

We cannot wait another day to pass this law. And it's so important that the House of Representatives is going to do that tomorrow. And we too call on the Senate to follow suit as quickly as possible.

I just want to add a couple very quick statistics to the dramatic ones that Congresswoman DeLauro mentioned. This November, unemployment among women was the highest it has been in 14 years, and unemployment among women who maintain families is now up to 9.3 percent.

I don't know what the figures are that are going to be released today, but that was already in November, and we know that the rates are climbing. This is a matter of urgency.

The Equal Pay Act that the Ledbetter decision destroyed, in essence, was passed in 1963. It was the most basic step. We absolutely must restore it. But the Paycheck Fairness Act takes advantage of the lessons we have learned since 1943 -- '63, rather -- over 40 years of experience in some of the loopholes and the ways in which, in order to truly have equal pay in this country, we need to take some of the most basic steps to improve that law.

So we could not be more happy, more grateful and more determined than we are today in looking towards what the House of Representatives will do tomorrow, what we are hopeful that the Senate and determined that the Senate will do shortly thereafter, and are to turn, as Congressman Miller said, to President Obama to sign this much-needed legislation into law on behalf of women, their families and all Americans. Thank you very much. And now I'm going to ask the operator to open for questions.

OPERATOR: Thank you. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press the star and 1 on your touchtone phone. You may withdraw your question at any time by pressing the pound key. Once again, to ask a question, please press the star and 1 on your touchtone phone.

And we'll pause just a moment to give everyone an opportunity to join the queue. Again, please press the star and 1 on your touchtone phone.

We'll take our very first question from the site of Margaret Talev, with McClatchy newspaper. Your line is open.

Q Hi, everyone. I wanted to ask you, do you -- do you expect that the Ledbetter act and the Paycheck Fairness Act will be actually the first two pieces of legislation that President-elect Obama signs and is your expectation that would happen on the first day, on inauguration day?

REP. MILLER: That requires -- this is Congressman Miller. That requires a crystal ball with respect to the Senate, but my understanding is, in discussions with the Senate, that this is a priority and they're looking for floor time, I think, next week. So that's quite conceivable that that could happen, but I don't want to -- I don't want to predict that.

But we, obviously, in the House have placed a great emphasis on this legislation.

As you know, we had hearings just weeks after the Supreme Court decision and then the mark up and the passage to the floor and the passage out of the House. So yeah, we would hope that that would all come together. Whether that's going to be the first day or not, you know, that's hard to predict that far ahead.

Q Mr. Chairman, can you talk about why that would be -- symbolically why that would be important? And do you have any idea about whether President-elect Obama also would want -- I mean, if the Senate -- if it were in hand for him to sign why he might want that to happen on day one?

REP. MILLER: For one, he's publicly committed himself to Lilly's battle here and to ending this discrimination. And obviously, there's all the symbolism of his election to the presidency of the United States of America and his ability to wipe out this bar to people to be able to recover from discriminatory practices with respect to pay in the work place would be a remarkable piece of legislation for him to sign. I mean, I think it's clear on its face. But, you know, we have and members of the Senate and Congresswoman DeLauro and the leadership here, you know, have made this an absolute priority. This is the practice of discrimination that simply cannot be tolerated on just the basic fairness test in civil rights, but also on the economic losses to these women and their families. And, it ain't complex.

REP. DELAURO: This is Congresswoman DeLauro. Let me just add, what Congressman Miller says is absolutely right. But there are a couple of points.

The bill -- what I've said, you know, in my commentary, is that I think the Senate has an opportunity to create momentum. And to pass both bills championed by -- early on by Senator Daschle, several years ago -- by Senator Clinton currently. And I'm not sure but I believe that Senator Clinton is dropping the bill -- Paycheck Fairness bill in the House, today. I certainly know that the Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is being dropped as well.

But I want to -- when you talk about President-elect Obama, I think references something that he said with regard to this issue around the Fair Pay Act and Paycheck Fairness Act. And this is a quote, "This isn't just an economic issue for millions of Americans and their families. It is a question of who we are as a country, of whether we are going to live up to our values as a nation." That's a direct quote from the president-elect. So he puts great weight, great stock, a great sense of purpose in this economic security for women.

Q Thank you.

OPERATOR: And again, please press the star and one if you'd like to ask a question. We'll take our next question from the site of Jim Oliphant from Chicago Tribune. Your line is open.

Q Hi, everyone. I just wanted to ask Marcia real quick, can you elaborate just a bit more on how the Ledbetter decision was -- how courts have been able to use the language of that decision and extend it to other areas involving discrimination suits that you indicated?

MS. GREENBERGER: Well, the Ledbetter decision basically undermined Title VII, which is a law that prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, national origin. So when the Supreme Court said that Lilly Ledbetter filed her claim too late under Title VII, the courts then automatically said that means anybody bringing any type of discrimination case under title VII, certainly in the area of pay just to start with, whether it's race or any of these other bases, will be held to the same unrealistic and unreasonable standard. So as an initial matter, we now see race discrimination and other sorts of -- national origin discrimination, pay claims, etcetera -- being thrown out of court. And again, I want to emphasize, or not filed at all. Then, the courts have said okay if that's what the court said you had to do under Title VII, which is the employment discrimination, let's look at all of our other discrimination laws and maybe people can't file those either.

Here's an example of an especially crazy decision. A court in California in a Title IX case, which is a law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools, said a student who has just come to a university and sees there is discrimination in an athletics program, cannot file a (claim of discrimination ?) that they are suffering for the first time because that discrimination had been going on for decades. And another example, in the same -- in a housing case where a court said that on the basis of the Ledbetter decision people who were facing disability discrimination in housing, that had been in effect for a long period of time, when they went to try to rent an apartment and filed right away, were out of time because the discrimination had been going on for decades there.

So now we've got these judges taking the Ledbetter decision to absurd lengths and saying that the most entrenched and invidious discrimination now, that those who have the courage and the knowledge and the ability for the first time to combat, are out of time. It is an outrageous approach and undermining of civil rights principles across the board. It's now causing real misery, as was described not only for women and their families, in pay, which is sufficient to fix it right away, but for all victims of discrimination. And now we're seeing it being applied in a very broad way.

Q Thank you.

MR. HENDERSON: Marsha, thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we have time for one more question.

OPERATOR: And we'll take that question from the site of Mark Scheff with Crane's Workforce Management. Your line is open.

Q Thank you. This question is for Chairman Miller. Mr. Chairman, why did you decide to move forward with these bills without going through regular order, without hearings, taking them straight to the floor. I assume during the floor debate this will be one of the criticisms from Republicans.

MR. HENDERSON: I believe Chairman Miller had to leave, apparently. I know that he had floor time commitments with the House starting this morning at 10:00.

REP. DELAURO: I will -- I can't speak for Chairman Miller, but I can say to you that in fact this is not new ground in the House. In the House we had -- we passed the Ledbetter bill overwhelmingly. We passed -- and it went through regular order, both went through regular order, as you have pointed out.

And the bill was amended. It was amended on the floor of the House, etcetera. So we've been through the regular order and we've been through all the debate and all the discussion has been thoroughly vetted, thoroughly discussed; and through hearings, through markup and to the floor with overwhelming passage and bipartisan passage.

Thank you.

MR. HENDERSON: Thank you. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This is the end of our press conference. I want to thank again Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Chairman George Miller, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, most importantly Lilly Ledbetter, and my good friend and colleague Marcia Greenberger with the National Women's Law Center for their participation this morning. And thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us for this press call.

Kevin.

MR. : Thank you.

OPERATOR: Thanks to all of our speakers. And this does conclude today's teleconference. Have a great day. You may now disconnect your lines.

END.

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