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Equal Pay for Equal Work
One Year After Passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Senator Mikulski Continues to Fight for the Paycheck Fairness Act
It's hard to believe that just 13 months ago I stood with President Obama at the White House when he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. This legislation reverses a bad Supreme Court decision, Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, that was so outrageous that our esteemed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg took the unusual step of reading her dissent from the bench, calling on Congress to fix this bad decision by changing the law.
What the Supreme Court said that day is that someone cannot sue their employer over equal pay if that person doesn't file suit within 180 days of the initial discriminating paycheck. It hit women right in the pocketbook, and sent a dangerous message about the value of pay equity in this country.
So we in the Senate did what Justice Ginsburg asked. We changed the law with the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to keep the court house door open to women, seniors and anyone else who is paid less in the work place simply because of their age, race or gender. It says that an employee can file a wage discrimination suit based on the date of the actual payment of a discriminatory wage, not just from the date of hiring.
This was a huge victory for equal pay and is already making a difference in women's lives and checkbooks by overturning court decisions that said that wage discrimination suits were not filed in a timely manner. It kept the courthouse door open for where discrimination in the workplace has occurred.
But we still have work to do.
Women today still make only 78 cents for every dollar that men make. This wage gap persists throughout the nation and in every workplace. We need to fix it — we need equal pay for equal work.
The Paycheck Fairness Act does that job. It strengthens the law that we have in place — the Equal Pay Act — by making it harder for employers to discriminate in the first place. The Paycheck Fairness Act increases penalties on bad guy businesses that pay women less than they deserve. It also closes loopholes that allow businesses to make a broad defense for pay disparity. This is important for the economy and important for jobs — we need more women in jobs and more women getting equal pay for the jobs they have.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee will be holding a hearing on Paycheck Fairness at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 11th. Watch it live on the Committee's Web site at help.senate.gov. I will be there speaking up for women, for fair pay, and for jobs.
Mikulski Car Tax Credit
Don't forget - last year Senator Mikulski successfully fought to give you a tax break if you bought a new car between February 17,and December 31, 2009.
Depending on the car and your family's income you could save more than $1,000. Also, this deduction is available to taxpayers regardless of whether or not they itemize other deductions.
For more information about the tax break and whether or not you are eligible, visit this IRS page
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