Washington, DC  – Congressman John D. Dingell (D-MI15) said today that the nation has made great progress in lowering the disparity between the pay of women versus the pay of men, but that we still have much more to do. The Congressman made the comments today, Equal Pay Day, the day that the wages of American women “catch up” to what men earned in 2008.

“The passage of the Lily Ledbetter Act was an important step forward, but we still need to get the Paycheck Fairness Act onto the President’s desk,” Dingell said. “The Paycheck Fairness Act updates the Equal Pay Act and creates new incentives for businesses level the playing field for men and women.”

The Paycheck Fairness Act is a key initiative in closing the pay gap between men and women.  This bill strengthens the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and closes the loopholes that have allowed employers to avoid responsibility for discriminatory pay. The bill would require that employers seeking to justify unequal pay must show that the disparity is not sex-based, but job-related; and would prohibit employers from retaliating against employees who share salary information with their co-workers.  The House passed the bill by a vote of 256-163 on January 9, 2009, but the Senate has yet to take up the bill.

“We know that women work equally as hard as men, so why the discrepancy in pay? How do we continue to justify this gender gap? I’d love to believe that the invisible hand of the free market will work it out, but try telling that to the families counting on the woman of the house as the sole wage earner,” Dingell said. “Many more men have been laid off during this current economic downturn than women, meaning that more and more households are depending on the woman of the house to provide the primary income.  Right now, 41 percent of women are their families’ sole source of income.  That’s a very big number, and the pay gap is an unacceptable discrepancy.” 

In 1963, when the Equal Pay Act was signed, women who worked full-time, year-round made 59 cents on average for every dollar earned by men.  In 2007, women earned 78 cents for every dollar earned by men.  That is progress – but it is slow progress.  It means that the wage gap has narrowed by less than half a cent per year.

Congressman Dingell and Congressman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY14) have also reintroduced a bill that would establish a Center for the Study of Women and Workplace Policy.  The Center would compile and analyze data on the differences between the earning of men and women and to identify factors which affect those differences.  The Center would also publish their results in the form of a “Best Practices Guide” for businesses containing guidelines to promote workplace equity, retaining women in the workplace and promoting a family friendly workplace.