Senate Floor Statement on the Paycheck Fairness Act

Mr. President, I am a cosponsor of the Paycheck Fairness Act. I support this legislation, and urge my colleagues to support cloture on the motion to proceed to this bill.

There are three questions we should answer in examining this bill. First: Do women face unfair pay disparities in the workplace? The answer to this question is overwhelmingly yes. Numerous studies have found that, even when accounting for factors such as age and experience, education, hours worked, job tenure, and the variety of other factors that may account for differing levels of pay, women are paid substantially less than their male counterparts for performing the same work.

Second: Should the federal government address this disparity? Again, the answer is yes. Allowing such discrimination based on gender is intolerable. Not only is it manifestly unfair, but such disparities do significant harm to families, in particular those families headed by women. Pay discrimination discourages women from entering the workforce, or from pursuing careers in which their efforts might be inadequately rewarded, depriving the economy of productive workers.

Third: Does the legislation before us effectively target this problem? I believe it does. It would ensure that pay differences are based on bona fide job-related factors, such as experience or training. It would ensure that employees are not punished by their employers for seeking information from coworkers about pay. It strengthens the legal protections that give workers recourse to the courts if they are victims of pay discrimination. It gives employers – the vast majority of whom want to compensate their employees fairly – new tools to ensure that they are doing so, and creates a program recognizing employers who make significant progress in this area.

We have made important progress in addressing this issue, in particular by approving the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which determined that each discriminatory pay check will qualify as an unlawful employment practice under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act would mark another important step by giving women the necessary tools to negotiate equal pay and to protect them when they are denied it. I urge my colleagues to allow us to proceed to this bill.