Paycheck Fairness Act - Motion to Proceed--Resumed
Floor Speech
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Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, first, let me join so many of my colleagues in thanking the Senator from Maryland for being such a steadfast and strong champion and a model for me as a newcomer of leadership in the Senate. I thank all the women who have spoken today--the women of the Senate--who are, on this issue and so often on other issues, our conscience in this body. They are cutting through the unfounded--indeed, counterfactual--arguments made against this measure, which is simply a commonsense fulfillment of the American precept that people who work equally hard and equally well should be paid equally.
The question before this body is, are women worth less than men? The answer today and every day should be no. They are worth every bit as much as men when they work as hard and well, and they should be entitled to equal pay for equal work. Yet in too many jobs in Connecticut and around the country, women continue to earn substantially less than men.
In Connecticut, the number is 78 cents on the dollar, and that fact is unacceptable.
This issue goes beyond the women who are affected individually. It is about their families. Because, on average, mothers in Connecticut contribute 40 percent to their family's earnings.
Closing the pay gap for women would strengthen the finances of families around Connecticut and across the country.
This issue is about more than just women and families; it is about children. The burden of wage discrimination weighs heavily on the 549,000 Connecticut children in households dependent on the money earned by their moms. The victims of this gender pay gap are the children of families whose mothers are discriminated against.
This issue is about the economy. Those women who are denied equal pay have less to spend. If the wage gap were eliminated, working women in Connecticut would have additional earnings to purchase 109 more weeks of food for the average family, make 7 more months of mortgage payments or purchase 3,000 additional gallons of gasoline.
I urge my colleagues to be on the right side of history. As Martin Luther King, Jr., said: The arc of history is long, but it bends towards justice. Let us do justice today in this measure and pass the Paycheck Fairness Act.
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