GOP blocks pay equity measure in Senate

The Washington Post
By SAM HANANEL
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 17, 2010; 11:39 AM

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans have succeeded in blocking a measure designed to reduce wage disparities between men and women.
The 58-41 vote to take up the Paycheck Fairness Act fell short of the 60 needed to overcome GOP opposition.

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/17/AR2010111702998.html

Paycheck Fairness Act: A flawed approach to job bias

The Washington Post
Editorial
Tuesday, September 28, 2010

THERE SHOULD BE no tolerance for gender-based discrimination in the workplace, and the Paycheck Fairness Act contains sensible provisions on the issue, including protections against retaliation for employees who challenge pay schedules. But the proposal, which builds on the existing Equal Pay Act, would allow employees and courts to intrude too far into core business decisions.

Full Editorial: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/27/AR2010092705409.html?wpisrc=nl_cuzhead

National Equal Pay Task Force May Include Revised Equal Opportunity Survey

The Administration's newly announced Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force brings together the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), the Department of Justice and the Office of Personnel Management. The Task Force was convened to "crack down" on violations of the nation's equal pay laws and to better coordinate the enforcement of these laws. The task force also offers recommendations for better collection of wage data, in order to ascertain the full scope of the wage gap. Third, the task force will design employer and employee education programs to improve their knowledge of rights and responsibilities under the equal pay laws. Since the General Accountability Office has identified an eleven cent wage gap between women and men in the federal workforce, the group will study the reasons for this gap. The Administration is also supporting the Paycheck Fairness Act that awaits action in the Congress.

Among the Recommendations of the Task Force are:

1. Improve interagency coordination and enforcement efforts to maximize the effectiveness of existing authorities. The EEOC, DOJ, and DOL will establish a standing working group to coordinate interagency enforcement of wage discrimination laws and to help implement Task Force recommendations. The agencies will focus on improving coordination and communication among the agencies, coordinating investigations and litigation, identifying areas in which they can issue joint guidance to employers and employees, and conducting joint training as appropriate. The agencies will confer with one another to promote consistency in policy and litigation positions, including opportunities to file amicus briefs. The working group will focus on the following specific functions.

2. Collect data on the private workforce to better understand the scope of the pay gap and target enforcement efforts. Private sector employers are not required to systematically report gender-identified wage data to the federal government. This lack of data makes identifying wage discrimination difficult and undercuts enforcement efforts. We must identify ways to collect wage data from employers that are useful to enforcement agencies but do not create unnecessary burdens on employers. The Administration will issue a notice seeking input as to whether the Equal Opportunity Survey, which was rescinded during the Bush Administration, should be redesigned in order to collect compensation data while minimizing the burden on employers.

Additional recommendations of the Task Force can be found by clicking here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/equal_pay_task_force.pdf.

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN HOLDS MIDDLE CLASS TASK FORCE EVENT ON WORK AND FAMILY

For Immediate Release
July 20, 2010
Vice President Biden Holds Middle Class Task Force Event on Work and Family
Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force Releases Recommendations;
White House Council on Women and Girls Launches Work-Flex Event Starter Kit

WASHINGTON – Today, Vice President Joe Biden held a Middle Class Task Force event on solutions for families balancing the dual demands of work and caring for family. The Vice President and members of the White House Middle Class Task Force and Council on Women and Girls announced recommendations from the Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force and discussed the Administration’s ongoing commitment to improving work-family balance for all Americans.
Chair of the White House Middle Class Task Force, Vice President Biden said: “Women make up nearly half of all workers on U.S. payrolls, and two-thirds of families with children are headed either by two working parents or by a single parent who works. Yet, the workplace has, for the most part, not changed to reflect these realities – and it must. Closing the gender pay gap, helping parents keep their jobs while balancing family responsibilities, and increasing workplace flexibility – these are not only women’s issues, they are issues of middle class economic security.”
To implement President Obama’s pledge in the State of the Union address to crack down on violations of equal pay laws, the Administration created the National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force, bringing together the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), the Department of Justice (“DOJ”), the Department of Labor (“DOL”), and the Office of Personnel Management (“OPM”).
Although a number of laws exist to address equal pay enforcement, the Task Force has identified five persistent challenges in this area, made recommendations to address each challenge, and developed an action plan to implement those recommendations. The recommendations from the National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force are as follows:
1. Improve interagency coordination and enforcement efforts to maximize effectiveness of existing authorities.
2. Collect data on the private workforce to better understand the scope of the pay gap and target enforcement efforts.
3. Undertake a public education campaign to educate employers on their obligations and employees on their rights.
4. Implement a strategy to improve the federal government’s role as a model employer.
5. Work with Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.
To read more about this set of recommendations and action plan, please click here.
The White House Council on Women and Girls also announced the White House’s launch of a Work-Flex Event Starter Kit to encourage greater dialogue around workplace flexibility at the community level and bring people together to start making changes. Employees, businesses, and universities are encouraged to use the Event Starter Kit to host a discussion in their own community about how innovative workplace flexibility policies can help employees balance work and family responsibilities, while simultaneously improving employers’ bottom lines. To view the White House’s Work-Flex Event Starter Kit, please click here.
At the event, the Vice President was joined by Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, White House Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes, and Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Jacqueline Berrien. Lilly Ledbetter, the namesake of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act signed by President Obama to fight pay discrimination and ensure fundamental fairness to American workers, introduced the Vice President.
The Department of Justice: Attorney General Eric Holder pledged that the Department of Justice and other enforcement agencies will coordinate and collaborate through investigations, litigation, policy guidance, data analysis, and public education efforts to make meaningful progress in closing the wage gap. Already, the Justice Department, in conjunction with the EEOC and four of its district offices, has launched a robust and intensive pilot program to coordinate the investigation and litigation of charges against state and local government employers. The Department is also coordinating with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to better enforce the laws that protect the civil rights of employees of federal contractors. The Attorney General recommitted the Department of Justice to these critical efforts and to ensuring equal opportunity and equal treatment in the workplace. For more information, please visit: http://www.justice.gov/.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: The EEOC committed to engage in increased outreach and education to improve awareness of wage discrimination laws; evaluate wage data collection needs and current capabilities, working in concert with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) to avoid duplicative data collection efforts; work with the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to improve the federal government’s status as a model employer; and work with the Department of Labor and the Department of Justice to improve interagency coordination toward enforcement of our nation’s wage discrimination laws. For more information, please visit: http://www.eeoc.gov/.
The Department of Labor: Through a collaborative effort between the Departments of Labor, Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Administration will ensure strategic enforcement of pay discrimination cases. In addition to hiring nearly 200 more enforcement staff, DOL will publish an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking early next year. The ANPRM will seek input from stakeholders on how the Equal Opportunity survey can be improved. The Labor Department will also launch new public education efforts, including an Equal Pay Checklist, a revamping of the Equal Pay Employer Self-Audit tool, and hosting an Equal Pay Research Summit.
To address issues related to work/family balance, the Labor Department will conduct a new Family and Medical Leave Act survey in 2011. The survey will provide needed insights into how families use leave. In addition to baseline data collection, the survey will also provide information on regulatory changes including a recent administrative interpretation of the FMLA. In 2011, DOL intends to sponsor a supplement to the American Time Use Survey. The data collection will be designed to gather more information on parental leave, child care responsibilities, family leave insurance program usage, and other issues related to the intersection of work and family responsibilities. Building on the White House’s Flexibility Forum, the Department will also host a series of “National Dialogue on Workplace Flexibility” forums across the country. For more information about the U.S. Labor Department’s pay equity and workplace flexibility initiatives, please visit: http://www.dol.gov/.

On 47th Anniversary, the Equal Pay Act Must Finally Live Up to its Name

The Huffington Post
Linda Meric
Executive Director of 9to5,
National Association of Working Women
Posted: June 10, 2010 12:00 PM

Imagine for a moment that you work in a department with three employees: one African-American, one Caucasian and one Latina. One day, someone new is hired.
Imagine discovering that this new hire is to be paid much more than any of you; even more than the Latina, who has been employed there for 14 years. Imagine your outrage; especially since the only difference is that all of you are women -- and the new hire is a man.
This story, from a Denver woman who now works in the financial industry, might be shocking to those of us who believe in equity and fairness, but it's not unique.
All over this country, similar stories play out, most anonymous and a few now famous -- like that of Lilly Ledbetter, who worked 20 years at a Goodyear plant in Alabama before learning that the men who performed the same job as she had been earning more all along.
It's time that pay discrimination end and the pay gap close in this country -- and there is something we all can do about it right now! Push the U.S. Senate to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Full Story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-meric/on-47th-anniversary-the-e_b_603228.html

Senate May Take Up Another Pay Bill Before End of Term

Workforce Management
March 12, 2010


One of the first pieces of legislation approved by the current Congress in January 2009 made it easier for workers to sue for pay discrimination.

It was named after Lilly Ledbetter, a former Goodyear tire factory supervisor whose Supreme Court case ruling was overturned by the bill that bore her name.

Democrats and advocacy groups hope that before the congressional term ends this fall, a companion measure will be on President Barack Obama’s desk.

The Paycheck Fairness Act would allow employees to pursue unlimited compensatory and punitive damages in pay suits and make it more difficult for employers to defend against them.

The House has passed both bills. The Senate approved the Ledbetter legislation but put the paycheck bill on hold. The measure was revived at a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday, March 11

Full Story: http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/27/06/86.php

EEOC Acting Chairman Stuart Ishimaru Testifies Before Senate in Support of Paycheck Fairness Act

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Cites Persistent Gender-Based Wage Discrimination, Highlights Obama Administration Equal Pay Task Force

STATEMENT OFSTUART J. ISHIMARU, ACTING CHAIRMAN

U.S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION

BEFORE THECOMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR AND PENSIONS

UNITED STATES SENATE

MARCH 11, 2010
Mr. Chairman, and distinguished members of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you at this important hearing, “A Fair Share for All: Pay Equity in the New American Workplace.”
The Problem of Gender Inequality in Employment Compensation
In 1963, Congress passed the Equal Pay Act, amending the Fair Labor Standards Act to address pay inequities based on sex. At that time, Congress denounced sex-based wage discrimination as contributing to depressed wages, underutilization of the labor force, obstruction of commerce, and unfair competition. While the passage of the Equal Pay Act and subsequent year’s passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 have done much to equalize pay for men and women in this country, in 2010 the pay gap continues to perpetuate the very same problems the Equal Pay Act and Title VII were intended to combat. Much work remains to close the gap, to end gender pay inequity, and to deliver on the promise of equal pay for equal work.
In 2009, Maria Shriver, working with the Center for American Progress, released a ground breaking report entitled, “A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything.” This sweeping study of the role of women in our nation’s economies and the economies of our families today provided a wealth of insights into the challenges women still face when it comes to earning equal pay for equal work. This report and other recent studies confirm what we at the EEOC have recognized for some time:
The gender wage gap persists. The wage gap is alive and well in America, with the typical full-time, year round female worker making $.77 for every dollar earned by her male counterpart.1 The gap is even wider for women of color and people with disabilities, and undocumented immigrant workers often don’t even manage to earn minimum wage. Although some of the pay gap can be explained by differentials in experience or as a result of the differences in the occupations men and women typically do, the Shriver Report estimates that about 41% of the pay gap cannot be explained by these factors.2
Caregiver discrimination results in gender pay discrepancies. Women continue to be more likely to bear significant responsibility for providing care to children, elderly family members, and family members with illnesses or disabilities.3 Discrimination against caregivers in the workplace based on gender stereotypes and presumptions about the competence and commitment of working mothers and others with significant caregiving responsibilities continues to drag down wages for women.4 This is an issue I have taken a particular interest in at the EEOC, and I am proud to have been a part of the bipartisan effort to address this kind of discrimination through the Caregiver Guidance5 the Commission issued in 2007, and the Best Practices Guide6 we issued in 2009.
Part time work leads to lower benefits and pay over both the short term and long term. Women are more than twice as likely as men to work part-time, and they often make the choice to work part time in order to provide care for their children or other family members. According to the Department of Labor Women’s Bureau, 24.6% of employed women worked part time in 2008, the most recent year for which data is available, as compared to only 11.1% of men.7 Part time work is less likely to come with benefits such as health insurance or paid time off, and by its very nature, tends to pay less than full time work. Because so much of the way our earnings increase over time is based on raises calculated as a percentage of current salary, the fact that women are more likely to work part time causes the pay gap to accumulate and widen over time.
Gender-based wage discrimination is especially untenable now, as more families come to rely on the income brought in by women workers to make ends meet. Recent studies show that the current economic downturn is resulting in more women serving as the primary breadwinners for their families.8 This is because men are losing jobs at a much higher rate than women.9 You don’t have to be a mathematician to figure out that where women make 77 cents on the dollar versus their male counterparts, where a father’s wages are lost, an average family can lose over 50% of its income. If there ever was a time to act to remedy the gender pay gap, it is now.
EEOC’s Role in Enforcing Equal Pay Laws
The EEOC’s role in enforcing the nation’s equal pay laws is a central one. EEOC is the primary enforcement agency for both the Equal Pay Act and Title VII’s prohibitions on compensation discrimination. We have further jurisdiction to address pay discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. The EEOC has issued a Compliance Manual Chapter of Compensation Discrimination which provides detailed guidance and instructions for investigating and analyzing claims of compensation discrimination under each of the statutes enforced by the EEOC.
On January 29, 2009, President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 which supersedes the Supreme Court's decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc. Ledbetter had required a compensation discrimination charge to be filed within 180 days of a discriminatory pay-setting decision (or 300 days in jurisdictions that have a local or state law prohibiting the same form of compensation discrimination), an unrealistic expectation given the secrecy that usually surrounds pay decisions.
The Ledbetter Act restores the pre-Ledbetter position of the EEOC that each paycheck that delivers discriminatory compensation is a wrong actionable under the federal EEO statutes, regardless of when the discrimination began. As noted in the Act, it recognizes the ‘reality of wage discrimination” and restores “bedrock principles of American law.”

Full Testimony: http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/events/ishimaru_paycheck_fairness.cfm

Fair Judges Needed to Win Fair Pay

Huffington Post
Nan Aron
Posted April 28, 2009 01:46 PM (EST

The Lilly Ledbetter Act returned the law to what it had been for decades, before the Supreme Court intervened.

Now we need to pass new legislation the Paycheck Fairness Act S. 182 - and stand up for judges who uphold the Constitution and the law to provide equal justice for all, not just a few.Today, April 28, 2009, is Equal Pay Day. Today marks the point when the average woman's wages finally catch up with what the average man earned last year.
Women still earn only 78 cents for every dollar earned by a man, and for women of color, the numbers are even worse. Equal Pay Day is an important reminder of this persistent wage gap and the urgent need to take action to ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work.
We've made some progress in the fight for equal pay - the first bill President Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. That law reversed a damaging Supreme Court decision, which had severly limited the rights of women challenging discriminatory pay..
But the Ledbetter legislation just returned the law to what it had been for decades, before the Roberts Court interfered. We need to pass new legislation to win the fight for fair pay.
The Senate must pass the Paycheck Fairness Act S. 182, a vital next step toward achieving equal pay for equal work by amending the Equal Pay Act. President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act 45 years ago, making it illegal for employers to pay women less than men for the same work. But loopholes in the law and weak enforcement from the courts allowed many discriminatory practices to continue. The Paycheck Fairness Act addresses these concerns and equips women with the necessary tools with which to fight unequal pay.
This fight for justice has been a long one. We are all grateful for the courageous women who are willing to demand fairness. Lilly Ledbetter, who worked at Goodyear Tire in Gadsden, Alabama, never gave up the fight, despite enormous odds and personal sacrifice. She stood up for millions of working Americans, even though she will not personally benefit from the law that bears her name. Lilly Ledbetter and many others like her show that we can win if we are willing to fight back.

Full Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nan-aron/fair-judges-needed-to-win_b_192364.html