FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 22, 2008
“I am deeply committed to building an economy that works for everyone, not just the rich and powerful. We will not succeed in that effort until women earn as much as men do,” said Novick. “We need more progressive advocates in the Senate who will fight for equal pay legislation and then make sure right-wing appointees to our courts and executive branch don’t roll back those protections.”
April 22 is Equal Pay Day, a national day for public awareness on the ongoing disparity between men’s and women’s wages. Women on average earn just 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. For African American women it is 63 cents for every dollar earned by a Caucasian man; for Hispanic women it is just 52 cents per dollar. If women in the workforce earned the same amount for the same hours worked, annual family income would rise on average about $4,000 a year and female poverty rates would be cut in half or more. [National Women’s Law Center, April 2008]
In addition to the supporting equal pay legislation like the Paycheck Fairness Act, Novick also renewed his promise to fight right-wing attempts to rollback workplace anti-discrimination protections. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ledbetter v. Goodyear that the 180 day deadline for pursuing a discrimination claim begins on the day of the discrimination – rather than the day on which it is discovered – in effect, giving a green light for employers to discriminate if they are smart enough to hide their illegal practices for 180 days.
“Lilly Ledbetter was a longtime supervisor with Goodyear, who discovered, after many years on the job, that she was making much less money than men with the same job,” said Novick. “Yet Bush-appointed and Gordon Smith-confirmed Justice Samuel Alito was the deciding vote in denying her claim and denied her justice under the law. We’ll never achieve pay equity if we continue to appoint ideologues to our courts who think nothing of rolling back our rights to protect the corporate bottom line. American women (and men) deserve better.”
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