Equal Pay For Equal Work: We Shall Overcome
Five years after the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act was signed into law, American women are almost no closer to receiving equal pay for equal work. We’re not where we should be, and we expect that to change.
In 2009 the fight for fair pay had built up momentum. Our new president, vocal in his support for closing the gender pay gap, had just signed into law a bipartisan piece of legislation that reversed a bad Supreme Court decision and put equal pay on the national agenda. We had high expectations for what would follow, namely that Congress would pass the Ledbetter bill’s companion legislation, the Paycheck Fairness Act.‎ The House did pass the bill—twice. But it narrowly missed in the Senate.
Since then, we’ve seen unprecedented gridlock in both chambers and watched both the House and Senate squander opportunities to advance the bill.
The Paycheck Fairness Act would create stronger incentives for employers to pay workers fairly, empower women to negotiate for equal pay, and prohibit retaliation against employees who share salary information. The bill would require an employer to prove that any wage disparity is based on a bona fide factor other than sex, such as education, training, or experience. Currently courts can still allow businesses to justify gender wage disparity with market forces or past salaries—factors that may reflect previous and ongoing sex discrimination.
The stalling of the Paycheck Fairness Act has been particularly stunning considering that national polls tell us there is overwhelming support for policies that would help women get equal pay for equal work. Voters get that this bill goes hand in hand with addressing economic mobility for women.Further, studies like those from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) show that a gender pay gap exists even with an apples-to-apples comparison.
After controlling for factors known to affect earnings, such as education, parenthood, and hours worked, an
AAUW study found that women earn 7% less than men earn just one year out of college, even when they have the same major and occupation. To those who don’t think 7% sounds like much, think about how that 7% is compounded over the course of a woman’s career—and how much it affects her benefits and retirement savings.
With public support and evidence on our side, we’re not naive to have expected Congress and the president to prioritize additional advancement in the fight for fair pay. But they have become too comfortable resting on their Ledbetter laurels. The Ledbetter Act, signed into law on January 29, 2009, simply restored 40 years of civil rights policies and precedents, ensuring that employees could challenge every discriminatory paycheck. As necessary and historic as the law was, it did not actually move the ball down the field as much as many seem to think.
Now for some good news: We believe that real progress can be made right away. Linda vividly remembers the exact moment President
Barack Obama told her that he would sign the Paycheck Fairness Act into law if it reached his desk. But part of the Paycheck Fairness Act
is on his desk right now.
The president can issue an executive order ‎that bans federal contractors from retaliating against workers who ask about wage practices or share salary information. This move would immediately implement a key part of the stalled Paycheck Fairness Act, which would give all employees this protection.‎
We certainly still need—and are continuing to push for—Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, but the president can protect 22 percent of the nation’s workforce, or 26 million people, with the stroke of his pen.‎ ‎That’s real progress right now. Just because Congress is stuck doesn’t mean the president has to be—and American women don’t either.
Giving employees the ability to discuss salaries without fear of retaliation or being fired means that people like Lilly might not have to spend decades being paid significantly less than their male counterparts before finding out about such disparities. The president’s executive order would enable the type of open dialogue often associated with a smaller gender pay gap.
The five-year anniversary of Lilly’s law is the perfect time for this call to President Obama and Congress to renew efforts to close the gender pay gap. In fact, Lilly will join the
AAUW Action Fund Capitol Hill Lobby Corps on Capitol Hill this week to meet with key members of Congress who have yet to support the Paycheck Fairness Act. We will remind them that equal pay for equal work is critical to helping families make ends meet, pay for mortgages and college tuition, save for retirement, and put food on the table.
Five years after the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, we didn’t expect to still be walking the halls of Congress urging passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act. We expected progress to have been made on equal pay. That’s why we need the president to put part of the Paycheck Fairness Act in place right away for the employees of federal contractors—and to put equal pay back on the national agenda.
With the president’s executive order, we would be much closer to where we need to be on equal pay for equal work. It’s time to make history again.
Lilly Ledbetter was the plaintiff in the discrimination case Ledbetter v. Goodyear GT -0.45% Tire & Rubber Co. and the namesake for the first bill President Obama signed into law. She is the honorary public policy chair for AAUW of Alabama. Linda D. Hallman, CAE CAE -1.24%, is executive director and CEO of the American Association of University Women. For more than 25 years, Hallman has made her mark as an association innovator, and she is a frequent speaker on women’s issues, finance, leadership, and management. In 2013, she was recognized as one of 100 Women Leaders in STEM by STEMConnector.