NRSC communications director Brian Walsh went of the attack against Democrats and the Paycheck Fairness Act saying,
“This pathetic political attack is just the latest effort by Senate Democrats to distract Americans from their failed leadership on the economy and it simply drives home how out of touch they are. While Democrats are busy sending out press releases and ginning up phony attacks, the rest of America is rightfully asking ‘where are the jobs.”
I seriously beg to differ with Mr. Walsh. For many women across this nation, the Paycheck Fairness Act is very much about economics and the economy. We work side-by-side with many men, performing the same job with equal proficiency, and in far too many cases, we, as women, are paid differently … predominantly less than our male counterparts merely because of our gender. Now, adding insult to injury, it’s common practice by corporate America to impose a policy making it a dischargeable office to share information about what you earn with your co-workers. Excuse me?
Far too many employers employ predatory wages for women and then turn around and employ predatory policies to prevent you from learning about the predation. The ruling by the Supreme Court basically said that the discrimination begins from the first paycheck … and thus … if an employer can conceal that discriminatory act for the allowable 180 days in which the female employee has to file a case of discrimination …. hey, they’re good to go and can continue that discriminatory practice in perpetuity.
In union environments, if you perform a job covered by the bargaining agreement, you’re paid the same as all others in that job title. That’s not necessarily the same in non-union environments. And given the GOP’s determination to wipe out unions and impose right-to-work laws uniformly across all 50 states, how do you think women will fare should that become the law of the land?
The majority of the middle class are women, and if you truly understand economics, you know that that makes women true “job creators” across this nation. In spending their paychecks, they create demand for all types of products and services. Thus, paying women less puts an automatic damper on demand. Without demand, employers aren’t going to hire more people to create additional products and services when there isn’t a corresponding increase in demand. No employer is going to consider increasing supply when there isn’t sufficient demand to recover their cost to produce that product or service.
Mr. Walsh and his GOP brethren, including unelected Sen. Dean Heller, in addition to pushing their supply-side economics hoax that has done nothing more than redistribute our nation’s wealth upward, now want to also ensure that women are incapable of achieving parity in the workplace.
According to AAUW Executive Director Linda D. Hallman, ”Empowering women is one investment that always pays long-term dividends, not only for the women themselves, but also for their families and the nation as well. It’s time for the Equal Pay Act to live up to its promise to provide equal pay for equal work.”