Nomination of Roy K.J. Williams to be Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development

Floor Speech

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Mr. President, first of all, I wish to thank my colleague Senator Warren, who is joining me on the floor. We are here together to talk about a question that could not be more critical to family budgets and to our economy as a whole; that is, what can we do to break down the barriers that women still face in our workforce and make sure women and their families have the fair shot they deserve. This is a question I know Senator Warren cares very deeply about. She has brought an enormous amount of leadership and focus to this debate. I am very appreciative that she is here to speak. So I would yield to her first and then I will finish speaking when she gets done.

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I thank the Senator from Massachusetts again for all of her extremely hard and important work to expand economic opportunity and security for women and their families.

She has been an extremely important voice in this debate, and I am delighted she is joining us today.

Yesterday I held a hearing on this topic in the Senate Budget Committee. We invited a working mother, whose name was AnnMarie Duchon, to testify about some of the challenges that she had faced. AnnMarie told us that she loves her job at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, but since the day that she started, she made a lower salary than her male counterpart who was doing the exact same job. They had the exact same responsibilities. Both of them had taken a pay cut to accept that job, and they both graduated from the same university in the same year.

When AnnMarie found out that he was making more than she was--even though they had the exact same resume, qualifications, and years of graduation--she went in and asked for a raise. She was told that she couldn't have one.

She stayed on that job and continued to work hard. It wasn't until her husband's job was at risk that she started thinking about how much those lost wages meant to her and her family.

She ran the numbers, and she found out that over the years she had missed out on more than $12,000 in wages compared to her male counterpart who was doing the exact same work.

AnnMarie and her husband are first generation college graduates. They have a 5-year-old daughter who is in full-time daycare because both AnnMarie and her husband have to work.

AnnMarie told us yesterday that when she realized her lost income amounted to 1 year's worth of child care or 10 months of payments on their mortgage or student loans, she said that was heartbreaking. AnnMarie was ultimately able to go back and convince her employers--by showing them the math--to give her equal pay.

But as we know, unfortunately, most women are not able to do that and many don't even know that they are earning an unfair wage. That is a real loss, both for our families and for our economy as a whole.

We heard what $12,000 could have meant for AnnMarie's household budget, but women's contributions in the workforce have also made a huge difference to our overall economic strength.

As working families have felt more and more strained by the rising costs for everything from college tuition to childcare and health care, and an economy in which the gap between those at the top and everyone else seems to be getting wider and wider, women's economic contributions have helped ease the burden.

Economist Heather Boushey, who also testified yesterday at our hearing, found in a recent study that between 1979 and 2012 the U.S. economy grew by almost 11 percent as a result of women joining our labor force. As we think today about ways to support growth in the 21st century, it is absolutely clear our country's economic success and that of our middle-class families go hand-in-hand with women's economic success.

So we have a lot more work to do because despite all the progress we have made and all the glass ceilings that have been broken, women still face barriers that are holding them, their families, and our economy back.

Stories such as AnnMarie's--stories of women who received lower wages for the same exact work as men--are still far too common. Because women are more likely to be the primary caregiver in a family, the lack of paid leave at most jobs means women today experience higher turnover, lost earnings, and are more likely to be passed over for promotions that would help them advance.

In addition, our outdated Tax Code works against married women who choose to go back to work as a second earner because their earnings are counted on top of their spouse's. They can actually be taxed at a higher rate, and that deters some mothers from choosing to re-enter the workforce, especially when you consider the high cost and lack of access to high-quality childcare.

Those kinds of challenges are especially pronounced for women and, in particular, mothers, who are struggling today to make ends meet. We know that two-thirds of minimum wage earners are women. Their jobs are disproportionately unlikely to offer any flexibility when, for example, a child gets sick or needs to be picked up early from school. And their earnings are quickly swallowed by costs associated with work, such as childcare or transportation.

It is also important to note that our outdated policies disproportionately affect women when it comes to their retirement security because, on average, women earn less than men, accumulate less in savings, and receive smaller pensions. Today nearly 3 in 10 women over 65 depend on Social Security for their only income in their later years.

All of my colleagues and I should be alarmed that the average Social Security benefit for women over 65 is just

$13,100 per year. Imagine living on that. That is not enough to feel financially secure.

The impact of these barriers is increasingly clear. Over the last decade the share of women in the labor force has actually stalled, even as other countries have continued to see more women choosing to go to work. Experts believe that a major reason for that is that, unlike in many other countries, in the United States we have not updated our policies to reflect our 21st century workforce and help today's two-earner families succeed.

At a time when we need to be doing everything we can to grow our economy and strengthen our middle class, that is not acceptable. Women have to have an equal shot at success. First and foremost, that means we need to end unfair practices that set women back financially.

We took a very good step forward with the Affordable Care Act, which prevents insurance companies today from charging women more than men for coverage--which they did before that Act. But we need to do more to make sure women are getting equal pay for equal work.

My good friend and colleague Chairman Mikulski has led the way on the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would provide women with more tools to fight paycheck discrimination. Giving the millions of women earning the minimum wage a raise--as Senator Warren just talked about--would also go a long way toward that effort. Of course, we have to update our Tax Code so that mothers who are returning to the workforce do not face a marriage penalty.

In addition to expanding the earned income tax credit for childless workers, the 21th Century Worker Tax Cut Act that I introduced would provide a 20-percent deduction on the second earner's income for working families with young children to help them keep more of what they earned.

As we get rid of these discriminatory practices, we should also recognize the challenges that working parents face, and we should put in place a set of policies that help them at work and at home. A big part of that is investing in expanded access to affordable, high-quality childcare. When parents go to work, they deserve to know that their child is safe and thriving while they are at work. There are many steps that this Congress could and should take through our Tax Code and by building on successful programs, such as Head Start, to help give working parents the peace of mind they deserve.

Finally, we need to build on and strengthen Social Security with policies that make it easier for women and their families to build a secure retirement. There is, of course, a lot more that we can do in addition, but I believe any one of those changes would have a real impact.

As the Presiding Officer knows from our Budget Committee hearing yesterday, AnnMarie testified and told us that she hopes when her daughter enters the workforce, pay inequity will be just as much of a relic as the days before the iPhone.

I could not agree more.

Acting to expand economic opportunity for women is the right thing to do. It is part of our ongoing work to uphold our country's most fundamental values. But as our country's recent history shows, it is also an economic necessity--both for our families and for our broader economy.

That is why it is so disappointing to see that when it comes to issues affecting women. Some of our Republican colleagues are laser-focused on turning back the clock. We saw this just yesterday when the senior Senator from South Carolina came to the floor and tried to pass an extreme bill that would severely limit women's reproductive rights.

Women today would much rather see Congress focusing on expanding opportunity and helping working families than on getting in between a woman and her doctor.

Over the next few months, we are going to see Democrats continuing to fight for goals such as achieving pay equity, providing access to affordable childcare, and raising the minimum wage--all of which would move women, families, and our economy forward not backward.

I hope that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle will be willing to join us in this very important effort.

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