Middle Age Woman Talking
Tuesday, July 17th, 2012
31 Days till the MARCH 8-18-12
On May 23, 2012,
Senate Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), the longest serving female in the Senate,
introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act calling for equal pay in the workplace. On
June 5, 2012, ALL Senate Republicans, including the women, blocked the bill. The
names of the women who blocked the bill are; Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Susan Collins (Maine), Kay Bailey
Hutchison (Texas), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Olympia Snowe (Maine).
Senator Susan
Collins offered the following reasoning for the Republican women’s vote against
wage parity.
“We already have
on the books the Equal Pay Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Lilly Ledbetter
Act, which I did support. I believe that they provide adequate protections."
Clearly they do not provide “adequate
protections” Ms. Collins, or women would not be earning $.77 to every dollar a
man earns. As for Ledbetter, which I thank you for supporting and President
Obama for signing, the bill evens out the playing field for women to sue for
wage discrimination but it does absolutely nothing to address wage parity.
Ledbetter in conjunction with the Paycheck Fairness Act, however, would have put
a real dent in wage discrimination because it would have closed easy to slip
through loopholes thus making the law easier to enforce. Just so you know Ms. Collins the gap in earnings between men and women, "translates into $10,784 less per year in median earnings, leaving
women and their families shortchanged."
Senator Mikulski’s response to the Republican’s
filibuster of the Paycheck Fairness Act was so brilliant I am re-posting it
here in its entirely.
"Although
we lost the vote today, we're not going to give up the battle. While it is a
sad day here in the U.S. Senate, it's an even sadder day each day a woman earns
less than a man doing the same job with the same education.
It's
unfortunate that today's vote occurred strictly along party lines. It's my hope
that we can bring this bill up again and forge a bipartisan vote.
As
we come up on the 49th anniversary of equal pay for equal work, we're not going
to let this bill die because of parliamentary entanglements. The majority
should rule in the United States Senate.
While John Adams and all
the guys were in Philadelphia writing the U.S. Constitution, his wife Abigail
wrote him a letter that said, 'Do not forget the ladies or they will foment a
revolution of their own.
Well, they did forget the ladies. And the ladies did
foment a revolution of their own. It was called the suffrage movement. It took
150 years for women to secure the right to vote. And now they've forgotten
the ladies again by not getting rid of the loopholes in the Equal Pay Act that
are making it hard to end pay discrimination. But we're not going to wait
another 49 years.
"So, I say to the women of America, let's keep this fight
going. Put on your lipstick, square your shoulders, suit up and let's fight for
this new American Revolution where women get equal pay for equal work. Let's
end wage discrimination in this century once and for all."
So my darlings, let's take what Senate Barbara Mikulski to heart, let's end wage discrimination in this century once and for all. MARCH!!!
Live loud, love fierce, and suffer no fools
