Paycheck Fairness Act--Motion to Proceed--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, we are coming to a very critical vote. Today we have the opportunity to address an issue that affects the bottom line of nearly every American family. The paychecks that American women take home at the end of each week or each month are as tied to our economic health as just about anything else. It is what helps sustain local businesses. It is what pays grocery bills at the end of the month. It makes mortgage payments. Ultimately, the pay women receive as we continue to make up a larger and larger part of our workforce is going to be critical to the growth of this Nation. Yet over the course of the past week, as we have debated this bill in the Senate and across the country, we have been met by either silence or resistance from those on the other side of the aisle. Time and again we have heard the same excuses on why we cannot join together to provide the guaranteed fairness women deserve.

First, we heard this was a ``manufactured issue.'' Mr. President, if you talk to American women all across our country, you will quickly learn what some of my colleagues have called ``manufactured'' is an all-too-real part of everyday American women's lives. Women will tell you that at a time when families across America are struggling to make ends meet, equal pay for equal work should not be a pipe dream; it should be law. They will tell you that nearly 50 years after the Equal Pay Act was signed, the pay gap between what men and women earn is just as real today as it was back then. They will tell you women still earn 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. They will tell you this gap undermines their retirement security because they receive reduced Social Security benefits. Then, most importantly, they will tell you women are not worth less than men.

The other argument we have heard is that this critical vote is in some way a distraction from the economic issues we face, as if somehow the pay of women--who compromise nearly half of all American workers--is not at its very core an economic issue. Let me be very clear. When women are not paid what they deserve, middle-class families, communities, and our economic growth pay the price.

Let's consider that in my home State of Washington where women still earn 77 cents on the dollar--or a pay gap that averages over $11,000 in lost earnings every year--for the average family that is an extra 90 weeks of groceries, it is 7 months of mortgage payments or it is 179 tanks of gasoline--all at a time when women are participating in the workforce at higher rates than ever before.

Surely, my friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle realize this is not the time to be denying American families this extra income they need to make ends meet. Surely, we should be guaranteeing American women and their families the fairness they deserve. This should not be a partisan issue. Throughout the history of the Senate, we have joined together to root out discriminatory practices and provide the protections American workers deserve. Today, as American families struggle, it is time to make sure unfair practices are not contributing to those struggles.

Today we have an opportunity to close loopholes in the system that allows for pay discrimination, to create strong incentives for employers to obey the laws that are in place, and to strengthen Federal outreach and enforcement efforts on behalf of women.

Today we all have an opportunity to say the status quo is not good enough. We have the opportunity to tell our daughters we are not going to let another generation face a pay gap because we are unwilling to stand and fight. We have the chance to improve our economy right now. So to those of my colleagues who claim to be so concerned about the economy and the struggles of the middle class, now is your chance to prove to your constituents you mean what you say. Now is the chance to provide nearly half of all Americans with the economic fairness they deserve. Now is the time to guarantee American women equal pay for equal work.

I yield the floor and yield back the remainder of our time.

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