KENNEDY ON EQUAL PAY DAY, IN SUPPORT OF LILLY LEDBETTER FAIR PAY ACT
Today is Equal Pay Day. It is a time to rededicate ourselves to the core principle of equal pay for equal work, a principle at the heart of this nation’s commitment to fairness in the workplace. When President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act in 1963, he reminded us that protection against pay discrimination is “basic to democracy,” and those words are still true today.
Equal pay for equal work is a fundamental value for our nation. Unfortunately, we continue to fall well short of living up to that goal. Much of our nation’s workforce still puts in a fair day’s work, but goes home with less than a fair day’s pay. Women, for example, bring home only 77 cents for each dollar earned by men. The pay gap also affects minority workers. African-American workers make only 82 percent of what white workers make and Latino workers make only 72 percent of what white workers make.
Tomorrow we will have the opportunity to do something about this gross unfairness when we vote on the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to restore the basic protections against pay discrimination as part of our nation’s ideals of fairness and justice.
Fighting pay discrimination is not only about standing up for justice, it is also about addressing the real challenges faced by real Americans to make ends meet. With so many workers struggling daily to provide for their families, pay discrimination makes their struggles even harder.
It’s particularly important to focus on equal pay in light of the relentless economic bad news we’re facing. All signs show that our economy is now in a recession. We’ve lost almost a quarter of a million jobs in the first three months of the year. The unemployment rate has climbed to 5.1%. Workers are earning less, and losing the overtime hours they need to stay above water. Those who are out of work can’t find a job. And the mortgage crisis has put many in danger of becoming homeless. Without doubt, we’re in tough economic times.
These problems mean even less money in workers’ pockets and more of a struggle just to get by. In such dire times, workers and their families can’t afford to lose more economic ground – but that’s just what is happening to untold thousands of Americans who still face pay discrimination.
In a harsh combination of events, the groups most likely to face pay discrimination are also the most at risk in this recession. Women are being particularly hurt by the recession. In the past year, the unemployment rate among adult women workers has gone up more rapidly than for men – rising from 3.8% in March 2007 to 4.6% in March 2008 – an increase of 21% compared with a 15% increase among adult men.
The downturn has also caused women’s wages to fall significantly more than men’s. In 2007, the real median wage for adult women workers dropped 3%, while the wages for adult male workers dropped half of a percent over the same period. Women are also disproportionately at risk in the current foreclosure crisis, since women are 32% more likely to have subprime mortgages.
These distressing trends are especially serious for women, because they typically have less of a financial cushion to fall back on during hard times. Lower wages for women means they make less over the course of their careers, and so are less able to save. As a result, non-married women have a safety net worth 48% lower than non-married men, and women are less likely than men to save for retirement through work.
At the same time that women are being buffeted by these negative economic trends, they are also being subjected to widespread pay discrimination. In 2007, women filed more than 2,400 pay discrimination claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – more than any other group of workers protected by our pay discrimination laws.
People of color are also victims of pay discrimination and the souring economy. In fact, in 2007, there were more than 2,300 federal claims of race-based pay discrimination in our country. The unemployment rate for African Americans has risen to 9%—almost twice the rate for the rest of the population.
Latino workers have an unemployment rate of 6.9%—still significantly higher than for workers overall. In addition, minorities are being particularly hard hit by the foreclosure crisis, because they are more likely to hold subprime mortgages. In 2005 and 2006, more than 50 percent of all mortgage loans sold to African-Americans and 40 percent of those sold to Latinos were high-cost subprime loans.
Like women, people of color, and other victims of pay discrimination, Lilly Ledbetter knows the toll that pay discrimination can take. Her case demonstrates just how great the burden can be. At the end of her career, she made 20% less than her lowest paid, least experienced male colleague and almost 40% less than her highest paid male colleague. For Lilly, and other victims like her, the cost of pay discrimination over the course of a career is tens of thousands of dollars in lost wages. Not only that, but her lower wages also mean her pension and Social Security benefits are lower.
The same is true for every victim of pay discrimination. Over a career, discrimination can rob its victims of staggering sums. For many workers today, that difference in pay can mean the difference between getting by and falling into financial crisis. It could be the difference between being able to pay the mortgage and becoming homeless. Or the difference between being able to keep one’s child in college or using the college account to pay household bills. No worker should have to bear this burden at any time, but during an economic downturn it is particularly troubling.
We will never make real progress in achieving our goal of fair pay for all Americans unless we vigorously enforce our laws against pay discrimination. But the Supreme Court has thrown a serious obstacle in the path of workers who try to assert their rights.
The Supreme Court’s decision last May in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company means that even more American workers will have to endure pay discrimination – and won’t have the means to stop it. The decision has undermined the ability of workers to hold employers accountable for pay discrimination.
Basically, the Ledbetter ruling says that if an employer can hide its illegal pay decision for 180 days, it is then free – year after year – to discriminate by paying women less than men, people of color less than whites, older workers less than younger ones, adherents of one religion less than others, and people with disabilities less than their coworkers, and these employees can never get relief.
Clearly, the rule leaves a gaping loophole in our civil rights laws. Our legislation closes this loophole by making clear that as long as the discrimination continues, a worker’s right to challenge it continues as well. There’s nothing radical about this, it simply restores the law that employers and workers had lived with for decades, until May 29, 2007, when the Ledbetter case was decided. It makes no changes in the time limit on damages for back pay, which is still two years.
At its heart, this legislation is about fairness and decency and rewarding work. Lilly Ledbetter wasn’t rewarded for her work – she was cheated and disrespected. Too many hard-working Americans are like Lilly Ledbetter. We shouldn’t make life harder for them by taking away their ability to demand fair treatment.
This legislation will restore our civil rights laws and help Americans weather this economic storm. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
