Paycheck Fairness Act

Floor Speech

Ms. DeLAURO. It has now been 50 years since Congress passed the Equal Pay Act to confront the ``serious and endemic'' problem of unequal wages in America. At the time, when women were a third of the Nation's workforce, President John F. Kennedy said that this would help to end ``the unconscionable practice of paying female employees less wages than male employees for the same job.''

Today, women are now half of the Nation's workforce, but they are still only being paid 77 cents on the dollar as compared to men. And that is why today we're once again forced to recognize Equal Pay Day, the day in 2013 when a woman's earnings for 2012 catch up to what a man made last year.

Unequal pay affects families all across our country. They're trying to pay their bills, trying to achieve the American Dream, and are getting less take-home pay than they deserve for their hard work. More steps are clearly needed to ensure that women are paid what they deserve.

We need to pass legislation that will end pay secrecy and give women the tools to ensure that they are being compensated fairly. We need to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. Men, women, same job, same pay.

Fifty years after this Congress first acted on the issue, it is time to end unequal pay. Make the dubious milestone of Equal Pay Day a thing of the past.

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