Senate Urged to Act on Pay Equity

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
Although Congress passed legislation over 40 years ago recognizing equal pay for equal work, pay equity remains a dream for many workers, particularly working women. DC labor and civil rights activists will hold a press conference – with US Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Representatives George Miller (D-CA) and Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) – on Capitol Hill today at 11A to highlight the continued struggle for pay equity and to urge the Senate to pass legislation to restore workers’ rights to sue over pay discrimination. The Senate bill – the Fair Pay Restoration Act – would overturn a recent Supreme Court ruling that “makes it virtually impossible for employees who face pay discrimination…to take action against their employers,” says the Coalition of Labor Union Women. The Senate act is similar to legislation passed by the House last year (House Passes Fair Pay Bill 8/1/07 UC). The event follows yesterday’s commemoration of Equal Pay Day, which represents the date it took women’s wages to catch up with what men made in 2007, reports James Parks on the AFL-CIO Weblog.