77 Cents

by dday

I’m pleasantly surprised to see equal pay make a prominent appearance in the Presidential election. Surprised and saddened – I can’t believe this is still an issue in 21st-century America. But here we are, and the Obama campaign is certainly using this as a wedge. He’s released an ad in Virginia and perhaps elsewhere on the subject, without posting it in his YouTube channel so that the McCain campaign would know what’s coming:

I think it’s especially effective to use the line about how McCain thinks women need only “education and training,” as if they’re a bunch of dopes who need to learn how to do their jobs if they want to get paid like the big boys.

In addition, Michelle Obama has posted at BlogHer about equal pay, revealing that she’ll be campaigning with Lilly Ledbetter.

Lilly is from Alabama. For nearly 20 years, she worked for a Goodyear tire plant. She was the only female supervisor—so you know this is a tough, hard-working woman. One day, someone sent her an anonymous letter with a list of salaries of her co-workers. That’s how she found out that she was making less than the men she worked with—even men who were less senior than she was. And we’re not talking about a few dollars. Some of her male counterparts were making 40 percent more than she was—for doing the same work.

Over 20 years, that adds up to a lot of money—money that could have helped Lilly send her kids to college, provide some comfort in her everyday life, or prepare for her retirement.

So Lilly did the brave and difficult thing. She confronted this injustice. Her case went all the way to the Supreme Court. And in a 5-to-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that, according to the law, Lilly only had 180 days to complain about the pay discrimination. So because it had taken her 20 years to find out the truth, she had missed her chance at justice.

Well, some people in Congress decided to change that law, so it would no longer reward employers for hiding discrimination until they ran out the clock. Last July, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act passed the House. But this April, Republicans in the Senate blocked it. Now, Democrats in the Senate are working to bring Lilly’s bill back for another vote this fall.

My husband is a proud supporter of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

Senator McCain does not support it. In fact, Senator McCain said that what women really need is more education and training.

There’s some talk that the Congress will bring the Fair Pay Act back up for a vote before the session ends, which would be smart.

It’s a discrimination issue as well as an economic issue, which has become the key fulcrum of the election from the standpoint of the Obama campaign. The unemployment rate for women has seen the highest one-month spike in 33 years, and as state and local governments cut back in an economic downturn, women, who currently receive proportionately more government services, will continue to suffer. And getting 77 cents on the dollar compared to men doesn’t help.

McCain may have hired a woman to run with him (and the narrowness of her issue silos as Vice President is embarrassing and I think telling about how McCain views her), but on women’s issues, it’s clear who is on what side.

.