OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Paycheck Fairness Act

Floor Speech

Date: July 31, 2008
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Women Employment and Affirmative Action

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Ms. NORTON. I thank the chairman for the priority consideration given this bill throughout, and Rosa DeLauro for her indefatigable perseverance on this bill.

This bill has not been updated for 45 years, and yet we have seen the transformation of the American workforce. It needs a 21st century makeover. I wasn't there at the birth, but I was there when I chaired the EEOC and worked with President Carter to bring the Equal Pay Act to the EEOC. The whole point of doing that was to bring this, the first of the great civil rights statutes, into line with title VII, which was passed thereafter. We have never done that. This is the first time we have done that, Mr. Chairman. That makes this an historic bill.

Seventy-five percent of women in the work force today have small children. Women are backsliding now. They are stuck on 76 cents for every male dollar. With the economy in the worst condition in a generation, women need every tool, and it is not too much to ask that they have the tool of equal rights.

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