01.30.13

Cantwell Honors Anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Calls for Passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act

***VIDEO AVAILABLE***

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today on the Senate floor, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) urged her colleagues to back the Paycheck Fairness Act and equal pay for women. Cantwell is a cosponsor of the bill introduced by Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) on January 23, 2013. The legislation is designed to help close the wage gap between women and men working the same jobs.

Yesterday, Cantwell marked the four-year anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act’s signing by President Obama in 2009. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act clarified that the 180-day statute of limitations for filing an equal pay lawsuit resets with each discriminatory paycheck.

The new bill, the Paycheck Fairness Act, builds upon the landmark Equal Pay Act signed into law in 1963 by closing loopholes that allow pay discrimination to continue. Women make just 77 cents for every dollar made by a man for equal work, which amounts to a difference of more than $10,000 per year. Today, Cantwell joined colleagues on the floor to urge the Senate to bring the Paycheck Fairness Act up for a vote.

Watch a video of Senator Cantwell’s floor speech here.   

Excerpts from Senator Cantwell’s remarks:

  • “In my state, Madame President, the state of Washington has been a leader in increasing minimum wage. We have a minimum wage that’s indexed to inflation and I’m proud of that. But pay disparity continues to persist today between men and women and that’s why I’m here today to help urge my colleagues to help close this gap.”

 

  • “I certainly look forward to the passing of this legislation because closing this gap means that women in my state will be able to afford 13 more months of rent or 39 more months of family health insurance premiums, according to an estimate by the National Partnership for Women and Families. We have to level the playing field so that these kinds of estimates are not just projections, but they are realities, and we can’t support the status quo while the economic security of women and families is undermined.”

 

  • “It is in this spirit of fair play that we ask for the passage of this fair pay act. We made a big step towards all this with Lilly Ledbetter’s help, but now we need to pass this new legislation. It is an important milestone that will help women be confident that they can be treated fairly in the workplace and to make sure that they continue to have access, no matter if you’re an engineer or a lawyer or a police officer, you should not have to earn less doing the same job as a coworker.”

TRANSCRIPT: Senator Cantwell’s remarks as delivered.

Thank you. I come to the Senate floor today to join my colleagues on the women’s side of the Senate. Our colleagues are going to be here this morning with Senator Mikulski, and I thank her for her leadership to talk about pay equity and the issue of equal pay for equal work.

I’m proud to stand here on what has been a four-year anniversary of the historic Lilly Ledbetter legislation that we were able to pass. And what an unbelievable moment that was to work for what is equal treatment for women in our court system.

Lilly Ledbetter went across the nation and came here to Congress and communicated this issue very well to many Americans. That sometimes you can be discriminated against and not even know it until your retirement, which was the case with her. And yet the legal system failed to take any action at that point. So we passed the Lilly Ledbetter legislation to make sure that in our court system that women could find out and could have those remedies brought before our system and fight for equal pay.

In my state, Madame President, the state of Washington has been a leader in increasing minimum wage. We have a minimum wage that’s indexed to inflation and I’m proud of that. But pay disparity continues to persist today between men and women and that’s why I’m here today to help urge my colleagues to help close this gap.

We’re here to advocate for the Paycheck Fairness Act because full-time working women still earn 75 percent of what their male counterparts earn for the same job, according to a report by the Economic Opportunity Institute.

While the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was a step forward, we need to pass this additional legislation to help end the pay inequity and take the next steps to help women.

The Paycheck Fairness Act helps us move towards closing the gap between men and women. It does the following things. It helps require employers to provide justification other than gender for paying men higher wages than for women, protecting employees who share the same salary information from potential retaliation from their employers, and it provides victims of pay discrimination with the same remedies available to victims of other kinds of discrimination including punitive and compensatory damages.

This bill also helps create outreach programs for employers to help them understand this issue and to help end pay disparities.

I certainly look forward to the passing of this legislation because closing this gap means that women in my state will be able to afford 13 more months of rent or 39 more months of family health insurance premiums, according to an estimate by the National Partnership for Women and Families.

We have to level the playing field so that these kinds of estimates are not just projections, but they are realities, and we can’t support the status quo while the economic security of women and families is undermined.

One third of families headed by women in my state are in poverty. This can be attributed, in part, to the policies that are punitive to lower pay for women. So we must end unequal pay practices and level the playing field.

It is in this spirit of fair play that we ask for the passage of this fair pay act. I know that Senator Mikulski, and others who have fought hard on this legislation, will be here to speak this morning, and I am proud that we are sponsors of this Paycheck Fairness Act that was introduced just last week.

But today almost 50 years after passage of the Equal Pay Act and four years after the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, we still need to make another giant milestone in helping women get fair pay in America.

We made a big step towards all this with Lilly Ledbetter’s help, but now we need to pass this new legislation. It is an important milestone that will help women be confident that they can be treated fairly in the workplace and to make sure that they continue to have access, no matter if you’re an engineer or a lawyer or a police officer, you should not have to earn less doing the same job as a coworker.

That’s why we need to pass this Paycheck Fairness Act today, and I want women who grow up in the United States of America to know that there is no doubt that they will earn the same pay for the work that they deserve to get. That is what our country is all about and that’s why we’re going to work hard this session to pass this legislation.

So I thank the President, and I yield the floor.

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