DeLauro Celebrates Equal Pay Act’s 50th Anniversary
Calls for Passage of Paycheck Fairness Act toRemedy Ongoing Discrimination
NEW HAVEN, CT—Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) celebratedtoday's 50th anniversary of the Equal Pay Act with both localand national advocates for ending pay discrimination. DeLauro and TeresaYounger, Executive Director of the Connecticut Permanent Commission on theStatus of Women, spoke in New Haven this afternoon. Allie Scheiffelin Walker, aformer Wall Street executive, spoke about the pay discrimination sheexperienced at Morgan Stanley.
"Fifty years ago, President Kennedy signed the Equal PayAct to confront the ‘serious and endemic' problem of unequal wages. But theproblem still persists, with women making only 77 cents on the dollar for thesame work as men. That hurts both men and women, for when women bring homesmaller paychecks than they have earned, their entire family has less money tosupport themselves.
"For this reason and more, we need to pass the PaycheckFairness Act. It gives real teeth to existing law and hold employersaccountable for discriminatory practices. It has passed the House ofRepresentatives twice, a majority of the Senate has voted to make it law andPresident Obama has said he would sign it. It took 18 years for the EqualPay Act to pass after its first introduction and I first introducedPaycheck Fairness 16 years ago. We are on the threshold, and American familiescannot afford to wait any longer."
Earlier in the afternoon DeLauro joinedher colleague Donna Edwards (D-MD), fair pay champion Lilly Ledbetter and acoalition of women's advocates on a Google Hangout to talk about progress madeover the last 50 years and the need to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.And DeLauro kicked off the day by addressing participants at the Yale Women'sCampaign School.
The Paycheck Fairness Act requires employers to showpay disparity is truly related to job-performance – not gender. It prohibitsemployer retaliation for sharing salary information with coworkers; undercurrent law employers can punish employees for sharing such information. Italso strengthens remedies for pay discrimination by increasing compensationwomen can seek, allowing them to not only seek back pay, but also punitivedamages for pay discrimination.