DeLauro: It's Time to Close the Wage Gap

Womensenews
Run Date: 01/12/09
By Allison Stevens
Washington Bureau Chief

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a strong fair-pay advocate, says 2009 will bring advancements for women's wages. First part of a series on members of Congress who are advancing issues raised in the WeNews' Memo series.

WASHINGTON (WOMENSENEWS)--Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the Connecticut Democrat, says now is the time to put the squeeze on the wage gap.
Congress appears to agree.
The House passed on Friday two bills to bolster women's economic security: one is designed to reverse a 2007 Supreme Court decision that made it more difficult for women to sue for wage bias and the other strengthens existing pay equity laws.
The Senate could consider the bills as early as this week, ready to be placed on President Barack Obama's desk for signature immediately after he takes office.
"I'm very, very optimistic that with a new administration, in a new environment, with President-elect Obama using and talking about this as a major portion of his campaign, that . . . it can be one of the first pieces of new legislation that this president signs," DeLauro said in a recent interview.
More than four decades after Congress passed a law making it illegal for employers to pay women less than men who do the same job, women still earn less.
In 2007 women made 78 cents for every dollar a man earned, according to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, a think tank in Washington, D.C. The overall wage gap among all workers is significantly more when low-paying, female-dominant job sectors are factored in, according to the institute.
Different occupations, education levels, job tenure, work hours and other factors associated with pay don't explain away pay differences, according to a 2005 study by the American Association of University Women, an advocacy group in Washington, D.C.
Advocating for Equal Rights
A staunch advocate for women's rights, DeLauro spoke about the subject on a panel discussion sponsored by Women's eNews at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last August and at a session sponsored by Lifetime Television Networks.
She revisited the issue in a recent interview with Women's eNews.
Tougher pay equity laws, DeLauro said, are needed now more than ever because women bear the brunt of economic downturns.

Full Story: http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3883