Closing the Gap: A Equal Pay for Women Workers: Hearing Before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, United States Senate, One Hundred Tenth Congress, First Session, on Examining Closing the Gap Relating to Equal Pay for Women Workers

LC Number: KF26 .L27 2007y OCLC Number: (OCoLC)318799133 Subject: Equal pay for equal work -- Law and legislation -- United States. Excerpt: ...lines ... Show synopsis LC Number: KF26 .L27 2007y OCLC Number: (OCoLC)318799133 Subject: Equal pay for equal work -- Law and legislation -- United States. Excerpt: ...lines the long-term problem of gender discrimination. A 53- year-old woman wrote, I started working at a Circuit Bell Telephone Company in 1970, right out of high school. I was making $79 a week. At the time, it wasn't bad money but the guys outside were making $150 a week and getting time and a half for working overtime. And again, these women, we know will retire with less money eligible for their retirement, eventhough they live longer so they need more retirement money. And let's face it, a lot of times women confront separated marriages, divorces in their fifties and they've been working at a low paying job and they are left with even lower paying Social Security benefits and things like that, because of this. Well, my bill would also prohibit companies from reducing other employees' wages to achieve pay equity and it also requires public disclosure of employer job categories and their pay scales. Moreover, it would allow payment of differential wages under a seniority system, merit system or a system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production. Well, some say we don't need more laws--that market forces will take care of it. But our experience shows that there are just some things that market doesn't take care of. That's why we passed the Equal Pay Act. That's why we passed the Civil Rights Act and the Family Medical Leave Act. That's why we passed the Americans with Disabilities Act. The market just doesn't answer some of those problems. This is a vital hearing, one that will keep us focused on trying to close this gap and to make sure that women are not discriminated against in the workplace. It's unfair, it's demoralizing. Women shouldn't have to battle and battle and battle day after day just to win equal pay. So we need... Hide synopsis