On Wednesday, the Senate failed to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill that would cut into the gender wage gap. Naturally, Democrats introduced the bill and Republican shot it down. Why? I have no clue.
Obviously, the bill was meant to mobilize and energize women voters. Which it did, myself included. But the introduction of the bill means so much more than that. According to a Huffington Post article, women were still earning 77 cents to every dollar a man earned in 2012. This disparity has not changed.
The wage gap exists because of ingrained gender roles. When women first entered the work place during industrialization, they were paid under the assumption that they had a husband and/or father to provide for them. The expectation was that these working women were just earning a few extra dollars, and that their wages weren’t depended upon for living expenses.
Since then, women in our society have become self-sufficient and, in some cases, primary wage earners for their families. Today, the pay gap makes no sense and is just an outdated relic of our past. It should be eradicated from our society.
Unfortunately, it still exists. In part because of Senate Republicans who vote against bills like the Paycheck Fairness Act. Yes, the bill fell only six votes short, but there should have never been any “no” votes. Period.
Honestly, where is the downside to a bill like this? According to the aforementioned Huffington Post article, “The bill would have made it illegal for employers to retaliate against a worker who inquires about or discloses her or his wages or the wages of another employee in a complaint or investigation. It also would make employers liable to civil actions.” Additionally, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission would be required to collect pay information. Republicans argued that this bill was not needed because gender-based discrimination is already illegal.
I understand that the Republican Party is all about smaller federal government, but obviously the present laws are not enough to close the pay gap. There are always loopholes and work-arounds that people are willing to exploit. We need better deterrents for employees. There should be steep punishments for paying women less than men. The gender pay gap should be unheard of and appalling.
If businesses are not willing to pay their women employees more, then they should be willing to pay their men employees less. Either way, women and men should be paid equally, no matter what. There should be no “buts” or qualifications. It’s 2014. The time for excuses is over.
